CULTURE INTERACTIVE CULTURE ---

23 - 24 JUIN 2005
ECOLE REGIONALE DES BEAUX-ARTS DE NANTES
5 RUE FRENELON, NANTES
CULTURE INTERACTIVE CULTURE
--CULTURE ET INFORMATION EN LIGNE
CULTURE AND ONLINE INFORMATION
SUMMARY
TABLE DES MATIERES
INTRODUCTION TO THE CONFERENCE
INTRODUCTION À LA CONFERENCE
3
5
THE CONFERENCE: EXPLAINING THE PROCESS
LA CONFERENCE: LA MISE EN PLACE DU PROCESSUS
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11
AGENDA
13
EXPLICATION DES ATELIERS
WORKSHOPS’S EXPLAINATION
15
- Atelier
- Atelier
- Atelier
- Atelier
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17
18
19
/ Workshop 1 / Workshop 2 / Workshop 3 / Workshop 4 -
SEANCE PLENIERE
PLENARY SESSION
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INTERVENANTS ATELIERS
WORKSHOPS SPEAKERS
59
1234-
59
64
70
79
Statégies de développement centrées sur l’usager / User based development strategies
Echanges, participation et mobilité / Exchange, participation and mobility
Gestion des flux d’information / Management of the information flow
Enrichir l’expérience / Enriching the experience
PROJETS PRESENTEES LORS DU COLLOQUE
PROJECTS PRESENTED DURING THE CONFERENCE
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BIBLIOGRAPHIE
BIBLIOGRAPHY
88
COORDINATION GENERALE
GENERAL COORDINATION
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COMITE SCIENTIFIQUE
STEERING COMMITTEE
100
COMITÉ D’ORGANISATION
ORGANISING TEAM
100
PARTENAIRES
PARTNERS
102
ORGANIZED WITH THE SUPPORT OF
SOUTENU PAR
108
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INTRODUCTION TO THE CONFERENCE
Why organise such a conference as this one, with its slightly uncomfortable marriage of different
‘worlds’ – that of the providers of cultural information, (such as resource centres, documentation
centres, public culture or tourism services, research institutes…) that of the digital pioneers (media
centres, university professors, artists at the cutting edge, directors of media companies…) and that of
the ‘ordinary’ cultural manager and artist, public servant, member of the public…?
The motivation has been long in coming, and the meeting of these ‘worlds’ increasingly necessary. It
started with a belief that those who collect culture data and laboriously input it into databases, should
be able to share the work and share the information.
Fifteen years ago, attempts were made to persuade the then-newly-established ‘national dance
centres’ in England to join forces to share and combine their databases – much of which comprised
the same information (contemporary dance being a relatively small world). There were a few brave
souls who supported the idea, but the majority of directors of these institutions and their information
managers refused strongly.
Why? Because “we have spent a lot of time, effort and resources in
creating our database” was one reason, “why should we give it away?” “We have received a public
subsidy to create our database” was another rebuttal. And the final blow was “we do not use the
same database software and we certainly don’t want to change”.
These three basic arguments against the sharing of duplicated data have not changed over the years,
despite the fact that within all three statements are also the very reasons FOR conceiving, devising
and maintaining systems to share the onerous tasks of identifying, inputting and continuously
updating the very same data which is needed by all parties involved. Why not share the time and
effort, in order to eventually free up scarce resources for other uses? Why not argue for public
subsidies for shared information projects, and use the resulting economies to undertake more
specialised, unique tasks? Why not work with technicians and software programmers to create
systems to more easily share and transfer data?
Five years ago, I invited five European information providers to discuss a potential project to create a
website which would provide basic information and contact details for European funding accessible
for cultural activities. The tasks of collecting, inputting and updating would be shared by all partners.
The site would be the virtual follow-up to IETM’s pioneering publications, “Bread and Circuses” (1991)
and “More Bread and Circuses” (1994), the first directories of EU funding for culture. The potential
partners discussed but eventually rejected the idea. Too much work, not enough money to do it and
inability to find ‘extra’ time for existing staff to undertake a new project.
Three years ago, I invited five European cultural associations, all with an interest in cultural
management training, to share information about their activities. We found, to our surprise, that all of
us had created an on-line directory of cultural management training courses in Europe and almost all
of us had received a public subsidy to do so. What a waste of time, effort and public money! Yet no
one was ready to give up their own project, or to join forces, making ONE common database but a
much more thoroughly researched and documented one.
Finally, in April 2003 in Zagreb, in the context of an inspiring conference jointly organised by CIRCLE
and Culturelink, “e-Culture”, this rather frigid environment began to thaw. Amongst many other
inspiring moments, papers and debates about the contemporary uses of new digital technologies in
the culture sector, the conference dreamt of a meeting of information managers and web technicians,
in order to question some of the technical obstacles to sharing database information
But the e-Culture conference went further : in the papers presented by the digital technology experts,
one fact was extremely clear: their sector was innovating constantly, rapidly; it never stood still – in
terms of facilities for users as well as users’ behaviours.
It seemed as though we, in the cultural information field, not all of us of course, were locked in a time
warp – focusing on our data collecting, some of us even still wedded to paper and book formats - we
all knew more or less about and tried to incorporate new tech applications, but it seemed most of us
were light years behind the digital specialists. And this, not only in our soft- and hard-ware but also in
the way we perceived our roles and ways of working and our users’ profiles.
In the meantime, IETM had identified a small amount of money in its 2002 budget to create a
prototype web portal simply giving links to all of the sources of information or funding we could find
which facilitated professional mobility in the performing arts sector. This was a response to the fact
that the IETM office was increasingly inundated with requests for such information. Our standard
reply was “we don’t know the answer, but we know who DOES have the answer and we can tell you
how to contact them…” But with a small staff and without the clear mission to become a public
information centre, we were having a hard time coping with the demand. Why not put our collective
1
knowledge (+ additional research of course) onto a website? www.on-the-move.org was born , but
little did we know that a lack of operational funding would mean that the prototype portal structure and
interface would still be around 3 years later… Our dream was to make a technical rebuild every two
years – something we still believe in as an ultimate aim, because we don’t want to stagnate, we want
to innovate as quickly as our digital colleagues do!
However, we did learn a lot in the first years of operation: that our concept of a “yellow pages plus”
for arts mobility needed a new definition of the “plus” because we needed to accompany less
experienced professionals to be able to use the information and make sense of all the links (1500 in
June 2005). This became our series of ‘training for mobility’ courses. (International Cooperation and
Mobility, 2003 and “Training the Trainers“, 2005 and 2006) It also has resulted in a small collection of
commissioned studies and article which can be downloaded free from the portal (20,000 downloads
in 11months of 2004), dealing with issues such as tax and social security, contracts, the status of
independent workers in the performing arts…
We also learned how to keep a tight editing focus in the site and the monthly newsletter (currently
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sent to 6700 addresses), as mobility can be a concept hard to define. And we learned how to work
with our precious partners who faithfully search, input and constantly update the information on the
site: currently the Goethe Institute Brussels, the Finnish Theatre Information Centre and Visiting Arts
UK (negotiating with the French, Spanish and Dutch). We have thus proved that it is possible to
share such tasks, although the technology that we are using is not appropriate – everyone has to
input the data into our database instead of being able to up- and down-load data from own
databases.
But in order to keep up with the fast pace of innovation, we gathered a group of digital experts,
cultural information providers and users to help guide our perspectives … and we decided to make
the e-Culture conference’s recommendation come true: to bring together digital experts, technicians,
information managers, users, to look at obstacles and possibilities of using the best experience from
all three worlds to inspire our future plans and projects. This is what we will do on 23 and 24 June
2005 in Nantes, very generously hosted by ERBAN (Ecole Régionale de la Ville de Nantes).
Of course now the European Cultural Foundation is very much involved in this dreamscape, with their
project of the European LAB for cultural cooperation, and www.on-the-move.org is pleased to be a
partner in the first stages of it, the G2CC (Gateway to Cultural Cooperation and Mobility) alongside
EricArts and Fondazione Fitzcarraldo.
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2
Thanks to Rudy Englander of International Arts Consultants and Tela Leao of Contexto Intercultural
Thanks to independent researcher/writer and OTM General Editor, Judith Staines
4
As professionals, rising above our daily preoccupations, we need to be envisioning and creating the
future; we need to convince our funders that joint information-sharing projects are MORE and not less
beneficial for our users; we need to work with them to identify time, money and physical resources for
risk-taking and adventure in the provision of on-line cultural information.
We sincerely hope that all participants will find the experience enriching and will leave it with new
dreams, ideas, ways forward, in the spirit in which it has been conceived: sharing knowledge,
information and experience as well as curiosity and enthusiasm for the innovations present and to
come. Why this conference? Ultimately, of course, it is for our ‘users’: to help us to create more
exciting, more appropriate internet-based tools for artists, cultural operators and the public. After all,
it is they who make our worlds worth inhabiting.
We are extremely grateful to the City of Nantes and their cultural unit, who, from the beginning
stages, believed in this conference and the necessity of the digital and cultural worlds to meet and
without whom the conference would not take place. We are also tremendously grateful to Corina
Suteu and Georges-Albert Kisfaludi, who have been priceless conceivers and coordinators of the
steering group and this conference. We are grateful also to all of the extremely generous speakers,
moderators and observers who have agreed to join us for the conference, some of whom have also
contributed to this ‘reader’, as well as to Relais-Cuture- Europe, an ally from the early days. Finally
thanks to the European Commission (DG Culture and Eductation )and our G2CC partners.
By Mary Ann De Vlieg, June 2005
Secretary General IETM
5
INTRODUCTION A LA CONFERENCE
Pourquoi organiser une conférence telle que celle-ci, avec toute l'ambiguïté qu'engendre la rencontre
de ces différents 'mondes' – celui des fournisseurs d'information culturelle (tels que les centres de
ressources, les centres de documentation, les services publics culturels et leurs établissements, les
services touristiques, les instituts de recherche, etc.), celui des opérateurs culturels (pionniers de la
technologie numérique, centres de médias, professeurs, artistes à la pointe de la technologie,
directeurs de sociétés de médias, gestionnaires culturels) ?
La motivation a tardé à s'exprimer, alors que la réunion de ces 'mondes' devenait de plus en plus
nécessaire. Tout a commencé par la constat que ceux qui collectent des données culturelles et les
introduisent laborieusement dans des bases de données, devraient être capables de mettre leurs
efforts en commun pour partager l'information.
Il y a quinze ans, des tentatives ont été faites pour persuader les 'centres de danse nationaux',
nouvellement créés en Angleterre, d'unir leurs forces en vue de partager et combiner leurs bases de
données – dont la plupart comprenaient les mêmes informations (le monde de la danse
contemporaine étant assez petit). Quelques âmes courageuses ont soutenu l'idée, mais la majorité
des directeurs de ces institutions ainsi que leurs gestionnaires d'information s'y sont fermement
opposés. Pourquoi ? Parce que "nous avons consacré beaucoup de temps, d'efforts et de ressources
à la création de notre base de données, pourquoi devrions-nous la partager?" était l'une des raisons
invoquées. "Nous avons bénéficié de subsides publics pour la création de notre base de données"
était un autre motif de refus. Le coup de grâce était donné en ces termes: "Nous n'utilisons pas le
même logiciel et nous n'avons aucunement l'intention d'en changer".
Ces trois arguments fondamentaux à l'encontre du partage de données n'ont pas changé depuis.
Pourtant, ils contiennent précisément la véritable raison EN FAVEUR DE la conception, la création et
le maintien de systèmes visant à partager les tâches onéreuses consistant à identifier, introduire et
actualiser en permanence des données identiques dont les intéressés ont tous besoin. Pourquoi,
dans ce cas, ne pas partager le temps et les efforts ? Pourquoi ne pas demander des subventions
publiques pour des projets d'information partagée, et utiliser les économies réalisées pour
entreprendre des tâches plus spécialisées et spécifiques ? Pourquoi ne pas travailler avec des
techniciens et programmateurs de logiciels en vue de créer des systèmes permettant de partager et
transférer plus facilement les données ?
Il y a cinq ans, j'ai invité cinq fournisseurs d'information européens à discuter d'un projet potentiel
visant à créer un site web qui fournirait des informations de base et des contacts concernant le
financement dédié aux activités européennes. Les activités de collecte, d'introduction et
d'actualisation des données seraient partagées par tous les partenaires. Le site représenterait le
complément virtuel des publications pionnières de l'IETM, “Bread and Circuses” (1991) et “More
Bread and Circuses” (1994), les premiers répertoires en matière de financement européen pour la
culture. Les partenaires potentiels ont examiné le projet mais ont fini par rejeter l'idée. Trop de travail,
pas assez de fonds et l'impossibilité de trouver du temps "supplémentaire" pour le personnel existant,
en vue de la réalisation d'un nouveau projet.
Il y a trois ans, j'ai invité cinq associations culturelles, toutes intéressées dans la formation en gestion
culturelle, à partager des informations à propos de leurs activités. Nous avons découvert, à notre
grande surprise, que nous avions tous créé un répertoire en ligne des sessions de formation à la
gestion culturelle en Europe, et que nous avions pratiquement tous bénéficié de subventions publics
à cet effet. Quelle perte de temps, d'efforts et de deniers publics ! Cependant, personne n'était prêt à
abandonner son propre projet ou à joindre ses forces pour créer une seule base de données
commune, plus fouillée et documentée.
Finalement, en avril 2003 à Zagreb, dans le cadre d'une remarquable conférence organisée
conjointement par CIRCLE et Culturelink, intitulée “e-Culture”, les positions ont évolué. Souhaitant
d'autres rencontres similaires, agrémentées de documentations et débats pertinents sur les
utilisations contemporaines des nouvelles technologies numériques dans le secteur de la culture, la
conférence appelait aussi de ses vœux une réunion avec les gestionnaires de l'information et les
techniciens du web, pour débattre de certains obstacles techniques au partage de l'information des
bases de données.
Mais la conférence sur la e-Culture est allée plus loin, faisant ressortir le point de vue très clair des
experts en technologie numérique : leur secteur innovait en permanence et avec rapidité ; il était en
constante évolution – en termes de possibilités pour les utilisateurs et au niveau de leurs attentes.
Notre constat : dans le secteur de l'information culturelle, une partie d'entre nous étions comme figés
et isolés, seulement concentrés sur la collecte de données. Certains d'entre nous prônaient encore
l'exclusivité des formats papier : nous tentions d'intégrer de nouvelles applications technologiques,
mais il semblait que la plupart d'entre nous étaient encore à des années lumières de la position des
spécialistes des technologies numériques, non seulement au niveau de nos équipements, mais aussi
dans notre façon de percevoir nos rôles, notre manière de travailler, et nos profils d'utilisateurs.
Dans l'intervalle, l'IETM avait dégagé un petit montant de son budget 2002 pour la création d'un
portail web prototype comprenant simplement des liens vers toutes les sources d'information ou de
financement que nous avions pu trouver, qui facilitaient la mobilité professionnelle dans le secteur
des arts du spectacle. La création de ce portail était une réaction au fait que le bureau de l'IETM était
de plus en plus inondé de demandes pour une telle information. Notre réponse standard était la
suivante : "nous ne connaissons pas la réponse, mais nous savons qui la possède et nous pouvons
vous dire comment les contacter…". Mais notre personnel limité et l'absence de mission claire pour
devenir un centre d'information public, nous empêchait de satisfaire à la demande. Pourquoi ne pas
concentrer nos connaissances collectives (et des recherches supplémentaires, bien entendu) dans
3
un seul site web ? www.on-the-move.org était né , mais nous ne savions pas à l'époque que le
manque de financement opérationnel retarderait de trois ans le prototype de l'infrastructure de ce
portail et de son interface. Notre souhait était de procéder à une reconstruction technique tous les
deux ans – un souhait auquel nous croyons toujours et que nous nous sommes fixés comme objectif
ultime, parce que nous ne voulons pas stagner, nous voulons innover aussi rapidement que nos
collègues du numérique !
Nous avons cependant énormément appris au cours des premières années de l'opération,
notamment que notre concept d'un annuaire des ressources pour la mobilité des artistes et projets,
devait être amélioré dans le but d'aider des professionnels moins expérimentés à utiliser l'information
et exploiter tous les liens (1.500 en juin 2005). Nous avons ainsi développé une série de sessions de
'formation en mobilité' ("International Cooperation and Mobility", 2003 et “Training the Trainers“, 2005
et 2006). Nous avons également commandé et constitué un petit catalogue d'études et d'articles qui
peuvent être téléchargés à partir du portail (20.000 téléchargements en 11 mois en 2004) et qui
traitent de questions telles que la fiscalité et la sécurité sociale, les contrats, le statut des travailleurs
indépendants dans les arts du spectacle, etc.
3
Remerciements à Rudy Englander de International Arts Consultants and Tela Leao of Contexto Intercultural
7
Nous avons également appris comment nous concentrer sur l'édition et la lettre d'information
mensuelle (actuellement envoyée à 6700 adresses), étant donné que la mobilité peut être un concept
4
difficile à définir . Nous avons finalement appris à collaborer avec nos précieux partenaires qui
recherchent, introduisent et actualisent en continu et avec rigueur l'information sur le site : le Goethe
Institut de Bruxelles, le Finnish Theatre Information Centre et le Visiting Arts UK (en négociation avec
la France, l'Espagne et l'Allemagne). Nous avons donc démontré qu'il était possible de partager de
telles tâches, même si la technologie que nous utilisons n'est pas appropriée – chacun droit introduire
les données dans notre base de données au lieu de pouvoir charger et télécharger les données
depuis ses propres bases de données.
Afin d'être en mesure de suivre le rythme élevé de l'innovation, nous avons réuni un groupe d'experts
de la technologie numérique, de fournisseurs d'information culturelle et d'utilisateurs pour nous aider
à orienter nos futurs plans et projets. Par conséquent, nous avons décidé de mettre en œuvre la
recommandation de la conférence sur l'e-Culture : réunir des experts de la technologie numérique,
des techniciens, des gestionnaires d'information et des utilisateurs pour examiner les obstacles et
possibilités en tirant le meilleur profit de l'expérience de ces trois mondes. C'est ce que nous ferons
les 23 et 24 juin 2005 à Nantes, où nous serons les hôtes de l'Ecole Régionale des Beaux Arts de
Nantes (ERBAN).
Bien entendu, la Fondation Culturelle européenne participe à présent activement à cette aventure
avec son projet de LAB européen pour la coopération culturelle, et www.on-the-move.org est heureux
d'être un partenaire des premières phases de ce projet, le G2CC (Gateway to Cultural Cooperation
and Mobility), aux côté d'EricArts et Fondazione Fitzcarraldo.
En tant que professionnels, au-delà de nos préoccupations quotidiennes, nous devons prévoir et
créer le futur ; nous devons convaincre ceux qui nous financent que les projets conjoints de partage
d'information sont PLUS et non moins avantageux pour nos utilisateurs ; nous devons collaborer avec
eux pour identifier le temps, l'argent et les moyens physiques nécessaires pour se lancer dans
l'aventure de la fourniture d'information culturelle on-line.
Nous espérons sincèrement que tous les participants trouveront l'expérience enrichissante et qu'elle
leur apportera de nouvelles idées et perspectives, dans l'esprit où ce colloque a été conçu : partager
les connaissances, l'information et l'expérience ainsi que la curiosité et l'enthousiasme pour les
innovations présentes et à venir. Pourquoi cette conférence ? Elle est bien entendu destinée, au final,
à nos 'utilisateurs' : pour nous aider à créer des outils utilisant Internet de manière plus pertinente,
plus enrichissante, plus appropriée pour les artistes, les opérateurs culturels et le public. Après tout,
ce sont eux qui rendent nos mondes intéressants à vivre.
Nous tenons à exprimer notre vive reconnaissance à la Ville de Nantes et à sa Direction Générale à
la Culture qui, dès le début, a cru en cette idée, en la nécessité pour les mondes numériques et
culturels de se rencontrer, et sans lesquels le colloque n'aurait pas lieu. Nous sommes également
extrêmement reconnaissants à Corina Suteu et Georges-Albert Kisfaludi, qui ont développé et
coordonné avec talent le groupe d'experts et le colloque. Nous remercions également tous les
intervenants, modérateurs et observateurs très généreux qui ont accepté de se joindre à nous, nous
ont fourni des articles, ainsi que Relais-Cuture-Europe, un allié des premiers jours. Enfin, nous
remercions la Commission européenne et nos partenaires G2CC.
Mary Ann De Vlieg
Secrétaire général IETM
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Remerciements aux écrivains et chercheurs indépendants et à OTM General Editor, Judith Staines
8
THE CONFERENCE: EXPLAINING THE PROCESS
The active debate that was engaged around the conference ‘Interactive culture’ was, like the theme
itself, based on the coming together of various ideas and institutional inputs. The diversity of partners
and thinkers that finally gathered around the event are confirming the interest and relevance of the
chosen subject and encourage the organizers to believe in promising following steps.
General Objective
This conference aims to give a vision and an understanding of the cultural evolution towards digital
culture; to identify the specific problematic of the dissemination of cultural information ; to debate the
relations between technological tool and artistic and cultural content; to analyze the transformation of
cultural resources into on-line information - both as dematerialized objects and as communication
flows.
The Steering committee
Composition of the steering committee was based on the idea that membership had to respond to
several critical criteria : balanced European participation, representatives from both the new
technology field, but also the cultural domain, mix between practitioners, founders, public authority
representatives and theoreticians and relevance to both the local and international dimension of
cultural cooperation.
This being considered, the steering committee members coming from two ‘worlds’ that the conference
was concerned about : technological and ‘cultural’, concentrated on identifying both the most
appropriate content and the most adapted modalities to translate the ambitious and original aims of
the organizers.
In the end, what was achieved was to consider that the conference will be partly an open exercise,
addressing a broad cultural and academic audience and partly a specialised attempt to facilitate the
launch of a process oriented dynamics and providing better understanding between the cultural
operators and the virtual communicators.
Issues for the plenary
Hence, the themes and issues for the plenary session were identified mostly according to the need to
address challenging questions raised by the development of digital culture during the last decades
and its interaction with the day to day life of nowadays societies. Digitalisation of cultural products,
dematerialisation of artistic objects, the change of collective to connective paradigms, the very
definition of ‘digital culture’, the reshaping of real and virtual territories, the mobility and intercultural
issues in the technological age… are some of the topics to be developed by the speakers of the
introductory plenary.
At the same time, an important focus is supposed to be given to the relation between arts and
technologies, the place that creativity and invention should occupy both in our day-to-day life and
inside the digital space, as a guarantee of preservation of the individual right to diversity, against
global standardization tendencies.
Issues for the workshops and the choice of observers
Following the incentive lectures presented during the plenary about the digital cultural space in a
broad sense, the four workshops are supposed to offer more specific debate opportunity to more
specialized matters ; each of the four workshops will benefit from introduction by two speakers and
will be animated by a moderator and an ‘observer’. The particular role of the ‘observer’ will be to
critically reflect during the last plenary session about the issues discussed in the workshop. He or she
will not be supposed to report in the traditional way, but to express the identified needs, as occurring
during the workshop discussions.
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The reader
An important part of the preparation activity was also dedicated to documentation gathering and
information transfer and sharing. From this perspective, the present ‘reader ‘has the role of a
laboratory like communication tool. On one hand it includes material and documentation about the
resource persons that prepared and participated in the meeting’s organisation, on the other, it
includes some of the documents that will serve as basis for the follow up activities and publications.
We considered crucial to contain, in a hard copy document, some of the information that participated
directly to the shaping of the present conference. On the other hand, the site dedicated to the meeting
will also offer an on line opportunity to access documentation and information. Last, but not least, the
meeting’s proceedings and most interesting documentation will be published in printed form and
distributed to participants by the end of 2004.
Because of the size and the informal character of the present reader, as well as because of the
international input that it benefits of, the French/English translation is not always present; this will,
however, be the case for the follow up publication. At the same time, misbalances and uncompleted
editing might occur, but as we said… this is part of the experimental profile of the conferences
building process as a whole.
Follow up
An interdisciplinary team was mobilised around the putting together of the ‘Interactive culture‘
conference event, hosted and co-organised by the City of Nantes. All organizers and partners want to
believe that the meeting itself will engage a profitable path of further European interconnections
between 'real and virtual worlds', between the arts and the technologies, between the cultural
operators, the local cultural context and the global challenges.
On behalf of the experts, partners and organizers, institutional and individual, the general coordinators:
Georges Albert Kisfaludi (content and speakers preparation, new technologies) and
Corina Suteu (general content methodology and reader coordination)
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LE COLLOQUE: LA MISE EN PLACE DU PROCESSUS
La réflexion engagée sur la question de la « Culture interactive » fut basée, comme le thème luimême, sur la rencontre de plusieurs idées et contributions institutionnelles. La diversité des
partenaires et experts qui se sont finalement réunis autour de ce projet, confirme l’intérêt et la
pertinence du sujet, et encourage les organisateurs à envisager la poursuite de ce processus.
Objectif général
Ce colloque a pour vocation de donner une vision et une compréhension de l'évolution culturelle vers
une culture numérique, d’identifier les problématiques spécifiques à la circulation de l’information
culturelle, de débattre de la relation entre outil technologique de création/communication et contenu
artistique et culturel, et d'analyser la transformation des ressources culturelles en informations
interactives en ligne, à la fois comme objets dématérialisés et flux transmis.
Le comité scientifique
La composition du comité de pilotage suit des critères précis : une représentation européenne
équilibrée, une participation de spécialistes des nouveaux champs technologiques comme du
domaine culturel, une grande variété de participants (praticiens, financeurs, représentants des
autorités publiques et théoriciens) et une intérêt soutenu pour la dimension locale et internationale de
la coopération culturelle.
Issus de ces deux univers, les membres du comité scientifique ont concentré leurs efforts sur
l'identification à la fois sur les contenus et la méthodologie les plus appropriés pour donner corps à
l'ambition et à la spécificité du projet. En conclusion, il fut établi que le colloque serait d’une part, un
exercice ouvert, destiné à une large audience des champs culturels et institutionnels ; d’autre part, un
processus dynamique spécialisé qui tentera de construire une meilleure compréhension entre les
opérateurs culturels et les acteurs du virtuel.
Perspectives des conférences introductives
Les thèmes des conférence introductives ont été principalement motivés par le besoin de répondre
aux questions entraînées par le développement récent de la culture numérique et par son incidence
sur la vie quotidienne au sein des sociétés de l'information. La digitalisation de produits culturels, la
dématérialisation des objets artistiques, le changement de paradigmes collectifs en paradigmes
connectifs, la définition même de « culture numérique », la réorganisation de territoires réels et
virtuels, la mobilité et les thèmes interculturels dans cette ère technologique... sont quelques-uns des
sujets qui seront abordés par les conférenciers. Dans le même état d'esprit, la relation entre les arts
et la technologie sera particulièrement prise en considération, pour mieux cerner le lieu que devraient
occuper la créativité et l'invention, tant dans notre vie quotidienne que dans l'espace virtuel et
numérique, comme garantie de préservation du droit individuel à la diversité, contre la tendance à
une standardisation globale.
Groupes de travail et observateurs
A la suite des conférences introductives sur l’espace culturel numérique pris au sens le plus large, les
quatre groupes de travail permettront une réflexion plus approfondie et des débats sur des sujets plus
spécialisés. Quatre groupes de travail réuniront chacun au moins 3 experts qui présenteront au reste
des participants de ces ateliers, leur point de vue illustré d'exemples remarquables portant sur le
11
thème retenu. Au sein de chaque groupe, un observateur, lui-même participant et concerné, aura
pour rôle de les relever, puis de les synthétiser afin de les présenter en séance plénière dans la
dernière phase du colloque. Il ou elle ne devra pas élaborer un rapport dans le sens traditionnel, mais
rendre les besoins qui ont été identifiés pendant les débats de l’atelier. Cette démarche a pour
objectif de faire émerger, relativement à la question soulevée, l'expression des idées, des envies,
voire des projets, mais aussi des incompréhensions, des besoins, des difficultés, voire des craintes
des participants.
Le "reader" / la documentation
Une importante part de la préparation du colloque porte sur la documentation et sa transmission. De
cette perspective, le présent document est conçu comme un laboratoire d'idées et un instrument de
communication. D’une part, il contient les informations et la documentation des organisateurs et
intervenants ; d'autre part, il inclut les documents qui serviront de base pour les activités de suivi et
pour les publications ultérieures. Il nous a paru essentiel de pouvoir disposer à la fois d'un document
imprimé et en ligne (sur le site web de l'erban : http://erba-nantes.fr), destiné sous cette deuxième
forme participative à évoluer en fonction des débats. Fin 2005, une publication des résultats du
colloque est envisagée.
Compte tenu du volume et du caractère brut de cette documentation, mais aussi de ses contributions
internationales, son contenu est livré dans sa langue d'origine, français ou anglais.
la traduction en anglais ou en français n’est pas toujours disponible. Idem pour les éventuelles
publications à suivre. Bien que cela puisse introduire quelques déséquilibres ou un manque
d’exhaustivité dans ces éditions, comme nous le disions déjà : tout cela fait partie du profil
expérimental du processus de construction du colloque dans sa totalité.
Les attentes
La préparation de la conférence « Culture interactive », accueillie et co-organisée par la ville de
Nantes, a mobilisé une équipe pluridisciplinaire. Tous ces organisateurs et leurs partenaires
espèrent que le colloque débouchera sur des coopération mutuellement profitables, en particulier de
nouvelles interconnexions européennes entre les 'mondes réel et virtuel', entre les arts et les
technologies, entre les opérateurs culturels, entre le contexte culturel local et les défis globaux.
les coordinateurs généraux :
Georges Albert Kisfaludi (contenu et coordination interventions, nouvelles technologies)
Corina Suteu (méthodologie générale du contenu et coordination du guide)
12
AGENDA
JEUDI 23 JUIN
THURSDAY 23 JUIN
9h00 Accueil des participants / enregistrement
10h
CONFERENCES INTRODUCTIVES
INTERVENANTS :
- Corina Suteu (modératrice)
- Christophe Génin
- Myriam Diocartez
- Michel Wesseling
- Don Foresta
- Stéphane Natkin
9h00 Welcome participants / registration
10h
INTRODUCTORY CONFERENCE
INTERVENANTS :
- Corina Suteu (modérator)
- Christophe Génin
- Myriam Diocartez
- Michel Wesseling
- Don Foresta
- Stéphane Natkin
Analyse de la culture numérique, les « moteurs » de
son développement, la manière dont le numérique
affecte la vie quotidienne de chacun d’entre nous.
La dématérialisation du domaine artistique et culturel
et de sa raison d’être.
La relation art/technologie et la place de la culture
dans l’espace virtuel.
The evolution of ‘digital culture’, the “engines” that
drove and drive this evolutions and the way
digitalisation affects the day to day life of each of
us.
De-materialisation of the artistic and cultural
domain and ‘objects’
The relationship art/technology and the place of
culture inside the virtual space
12h30 DEJEUNER
12h30 LUNCH
14h30 CONFERENCES (suite)
Développement de quelques perspectives
transversales :
14h30 CONFERENCE (continuation)
Transversal perspective:
- Une culture de l’utilisateur
- Quelle place pour la culture dans le monde
technologique
- a culture of the user
- what place for culture in the digital space
16h15 GROUPES DE TRAVAIL
16h15 WORKSHOPS
Quatre ateliers approfondiront les questions
soulevées lors de la conférence. Chaque atelier est
représenté par deux ou trois spécialistes de la
question. La discussion sera animée par un
opérateur culturel. Un observateur prendra note des
échanges. Il sera chargé de la synthèse et la
rapportera lors de la conférence finale du colloque.
There will be four workshops on specific, critical
issues, linking culture (broad sense) and digital
space (digital culture). Each workshop will be
introduced by two special key panellists, the
discussion will be moderated by a cultural operator;
an ‘observer’ will take note, and also be an active
part in the debate and will be responsible for the
final ‘expression of needs ‘ during the final panel.
Atelier 1 : Stratégies de développement centrées
sur l’usager.
INTERVENANTS :
- Christophe Génin (modérateur)
- Jens Cavallin (observateur)
- Kimmo Lehtonnen
- Nenad Romic
- Sandra Fauconnier
- Milena Dobreva
Atelier 2 : Echange, participation et mobilité
INTERVENANTS :
- Corina Suteu (modératrice)
- Stéphane Juguet (observateur)
- Thomas Hart
- Rob van Kranenburg
- Emmanuel Mahe
Workshop 1 : User based development
strategies
INTERVENANTS :
- Christophe Génin (moderator)
- Jens Cavallin (observator)
- Kimmo Lehtonnen
- Nenad Romic
- Sandra Fauconnier
- Milena Dobreva
Workshop 2 : Exchange, participation and
mobility
INTERVENANTS :
- Corina Suteu (moderator)
- Stéphane Juguet (observator)
- Thomas Hart
- Rob van Kranenburg
VENDREDI 24 JUIN
FRIDAY 24 JUNE
9h
9h30
12h30
14h
ACCUEIL DES PARTICIPANTS
GROUPES DE TRAVAIL (IDEM QUE LA VEILLE)
DEJEUNER
TEMPS DE PREPARATION POUR LES
9h
9h30
12h30
14h
15h
15h
CONFERENCE CONCLUSIVE
OBSERVATEURS
Cette session finale recueillera les rapports faits par les
intervenants et les observateurs, la synthèse de ce qui
a été exprimé dans chaque groupe de travail et des
réponses
potentielles
apportées
par
certains
participants.
- modératrice : Corina Suteu
- observateurs : Jens Cavellin ; Stéphane Juguet ;
Alexandra Uzelac ; Myriam Diocaretz
- Georges-Albert Kisfaludi ; Christophe Génin ; Pascal
Brunet ; Mary-Ann De Vlieg ; Corina Suteu, Bettina
Knaup
17h45
CLOTURE DU SEMINAIRE PAR YANNICK GUIN
Adjoint au maire chargé de la culture
PARTICIPANTS WELCOME
WORKSHOPS (SAME AS THE DAY BEFORE)
LUNCH
PREPARATION OBSERVATORS’ REPORT
FINAL PLENARY
Thus, the final plenary will gather an original way
of reporting by cultural operators dealing with
digital culture and expressing specific needs,
according to each workshop issue; this
‘expression of needs’ will give, an open character
to the conference and will place it in the sense of
a process oriented approach.
- moderator : Corina Suteu
- obsvervators : Jens Cavellin ; Stéphane Juguet ;
Alexandra Uzelac ; Myriam Diocaretz
- Georges-Albert Kisfaludi ; Christophe Génin ;
Pascal Brunet ; Mary-Ann De Vlieg ; Corina
Suteu, Bettina Knaup
17h45
CONCLUSION OF THE COLLOQUIUM BY
YANNICK GUIN
14
GOUPES DE TRAVAIL / WORKING GROUPS
EXPLICATION DES ATELIERS
WORKSHOPS’S EXPLANATION
A la suite des conférences introductives en séance
plénière, des débats thématiques plus spécialisés
seront organisés au sein de 4 groupes de travail
restreints : de 10 à 20 participants au maximum.
Parmi eux, 2 à 4 experts au moins présenteront
leur point de vue illustré d'exemples remarquables
et d'études de cas.
Cette première phase a pour but de lancer le
débat, l'analyse et l'échange d'expérience au sein
de chaque groupe, débat organisé par un
modérateur au sujet des modèles qui stimulent
l'usage des nouvelles technologies de l'information,
de la construction de communautés virtuelles, et du
renforcement des capacités professionnelles
d'opérateurs et d'acteurs culturels travaillant sans
frontières en Europe.
Il s'agit de faire émerger, relativement aux sujets
débattus, l'expression des besoins, des envies, des
projets, mais aussi des incompréhensions, des
difficultés et des craintes des participants. Au sein
de chaque groupe, un observateur, lui-même
participant, aura pour rôle de les relever, puis de
les synthétiser afin de les présenter en séance
plénière à la fin du colloque.
Cette dernière étape a pour vocation de mettre en
correspondance ces questions soulevées avec des
réponses
potentielles,
apportées
par
les
participants au colloque qui disposent des moyens
infrastructurels et des compétences pour le faire ou
le favoriser.
Following the introductory presentations of the
opening plenary session, specialised thematic
debates will be organised in the framework of
four strictly limited working groups with a
maximum of 10 to 20 participants each. Within
the groups, at least two - four experts will
present their points of view illustrated by
exemplary models and case studies.
This first part aims to launch a debate, analysis
and exchange of experience which will take
place in each one of the groups overseen by a
moderator, looking at models which stimulate
the use of new information technologies, the
construction of virtual communities, and the
strengthening of the professional capacities of
cultural operators and cultural actors working
across borders in Europe.
The conference structure has been constructed
to encourage participants to express needs,
desires, projects, but also incomprehension,
difficulties and fears relative to the subjects
treated. Within each group, an observer, who is
also a participant, has the responsibility to
highlight these issues, to summarise and finally
to present them in the final plenary session at the
end of the conference.
This last part will connect the highlighted
questions to responses from certain participants
representing resources or infrastructures capable
of furnishing potential solutions.
Quatre thèmes sont définis :
Four themes have been defined:
Stratégies de développement, centrées sur
l’usager
Development strategies focused on the user
Echanges, participation et mobilité
Exchange, participation and mobility
Gestion des flux d’information
Management of the information flow
Enrichir l’expérience
Enriching the experience
15
- Atelier 1 - Workshop 1 Stratégies de développement, centrées sur
l’usager
De plus en plus d'opérateurs, d'acteurs et de
décisionnaires culturels sont confrontés à la
nécessité de développer une information en
ligne. Experts de leur secteur culturel, point de
départ de leur démarche, ils questionnent
l'évolution culturelle à la recherche de la "culture
numérique" ("digital culture").
Existe t’elle ?
S'agit-il d'une rupture, de l'invention d'une
nouvelle forme non prédéterminée ? Quel rôle
joue le choix des outils, en quoi modifient-ils le
contenu culturel à exprimer ?
Ces questions suggèrent que la nature même du
rapport entre l'information et l'usager se
transforme : l'information devient extrêmement
relative à l'intéressé et à l'usage qu'il en fait ; sa
nouvelle structuration dynamique, basée sur le
lien interactif, permet cette adaptabilité. La
diffusion hyper centralisée, dérivée du modèle
télévisuel, voit son monopole remis en cause par
un modèle réparti, évolutif et bijectif, aux
attracteurs multiples et changeants, définissant
une topologie en constante mouvance.
De nouvelles stratégies de développement de
l'information en ligne proposent par conséquent
de se baser sur la culture des utilisateurs, avec
une offre ouverte mais adaptive : ce sont les
usages, choix et réactions en retour qui orientent,
sélectionnent et modifient, aussi bien des outils
que les formes, dans un rapport constant aux
contenus.
Comment développer ces technologies faciles à
utiliser et adaptées aux personnes disposant
d'une connaissance limitée des possibilités
offertes par le numérique ? Le secteur du logiciel
libre de droits (open source software) comme
l'"extrême management" permettent d'envisager
des axes de réflexion qui, entre autres, seront
débattus au sein du groupe de travail, comme
point de départ d'une réflexion sur les stratégies
envisageables.
Development strategies focused on the user
Increasing numbers of cultural operators, actors
and decision makers are currently confronted
with the need to develop on-line information.
Starting with expertise in their own sectors they
question the cultural evolution leading to digital
culture. Does it exist? Is it a break, the invention
of a new, unpredictable form? What role do the
digital tools themselves play; how do they
actually modify cultural content?
These questions suggest that the very nature of
the relationship between information and the user
is being transformed: information becomes
extremely relative to the user and the use s/he
makes of it; this adaptability is due to its new
dynamic structure based on interactivity. The
monopoly of a hyper-centralised distribution
model based on television is called into question
by a new model, evoluative and bi-jective, with
multiple and changing attractors, defining a
topology in constant movement.
New development strategies for on-line
information propose to be based on the culture of
the users, with an offer that is open but
adaptable: usages, choices and reactions will
orient, select and modify the tools as well as the
forms, in constant rapport with the contents.
How can we develop easy-to-use technologies
adapted to people with limited knowledge of
digital technology’s possibilities? Open source
software tools such as "extreme management"
will help us envisage the main points to be
discussed in the working group, as points of
departure looking toward foreseeable strategies.
16
- Atelier 2 - Workshop 2 Echanges, participation et mobilité
Exchange, participation and mobility :
Les nouvelles technologies de communication et
leurs usages induisent le concept d'espace
d'information : au même titre que l'espace
construit, modelé par l'intervention humaine,
l'espace d'information devient structurant ;
l'interaction, donc les liens, définit de nouvelles
cartographies.
New communication technologies and their uses
lead to the concept of the ‘information space’. In
the same manner as any other constructed space
fashioned by human intervention, the information
space becomes a structuring element –
interaction, thus links, define new cartographies.
Comment se superposent l'espace d'information
et l'espace physique ? La notion de distance
s'efface au profit de celle de distanciation, mais il
ne s'agit là que d'un des nombreux aspects de la
dématérialisation en cours dans les sociétés de
l'information interactive multimedia. La relation
entre espace naturel et virtuel s'en trouve
affectée, nous faisant ressentir de nouvelles
matérialités qui permettent la mise en œuvre
d'originales relations réversibles de causes à
effets.
Dans ce contexte, l'individualisation du rapport à
l'espace d'information correspond plus à une
appropriation individuelle qu'au développement
de l'individualisme. Les modes opératoires des
utilisateurs sont collaboratifs et privilégient
l'échange. La mobilité, aussi bien intellectuelle
que "géographique" au sein de l'espace
d'information, est bien une caractéristique
emblématique d'une réappropriation par les
usagers : des communautés connectées, des
tribus, de nouvelles "relations de voisinages" et
des regroupements participatifs se construisent
de manière fluide, extrêmement dynamique et
sans limitations autres que les possibilités
techniques, elles-mêmes en plein développement
exponentiel.
Quels sont les outils actuels et à venir, générés
par cette nouvelle culture du partage de l'espace
d'information et de la mobilité ? Pour n'en citer
que quelques-uns : Peer to Peer, weblog, wiki,
tchat, forum en ligne ; mais aussi GPS, etc…
Sous un angle à la fois conceptuel et pratique, le
groupe de travail s'attachera à comprendre ces
évolutions pour mieux développer des visions
prospectives.
How do we superimpose the information space
and the physical space? The notion of distance
gives way to that of distanciation, but this is only
one of the many aspects of dematerialization
which are taking place in the interactive
multimedia information society. As the relation
between the natural and the virtual space is
modified, we sense new materialities which lead
to the reversal of original relations from those of
cause to those of effect.
In this context, an individual’s relation to the
information space corresponds more to his/her
manner of appropriating it than to the
development of individualism. Users’ operating
modes are collaborative and prioritise exchange.
Mobility, which in the information space is as
much intellectual as "geographic", is really the
emblematic
characteristic
of
users’
reappropriation : connected communities, tribes,
new ‘neighbour relations” and participative regroupings are fluidly constructed, extremely
dynamic and without any limits other than
technical possibilities, themselves in a period of
exponential development.
What are the current tools and those currently
being developed which are generated by this
new culture of mobility and sharing in the
information space? To only mention a few: Peer
to Peer, weblog, wiki, chat, on-line forums; but
also GPS, etc… Taking an angle which is
simultaneously conceptual and pragmatic, this
working group will try to understand today’s
evolutions in order to better develop visions for
the future.
17
- Atelier 3 - Workshop 3 Gestion des flux d’information
Management of the information flow
L'information en ligne, par son caractère immatériel et
la standardisation mondiale de ses formats en
constante évolution technique, multiplie sans cesse
ses sources. D'où qu'elles émergent, ces données en
ligne accèdent au statut d'information, de manière
totalement délocalisée, entraînant un accroissement
exponentiel à la fois de la masse mais aussi des flux
d'information.
Se posent deux problèmes complémentaires, aux
deux extrémités du spectre de ce statut d'information :
d'une part, pour l'émetteur, comment sélectionner,
ordonner et conformer les données à mettre en
ligne ? De l'autre, pour l'utilisateur, comment chercher,
trier et analyser les informations ? Pour les deux,
comment gérer l'information en tant que flux ? Il suffit
de lancer une recherche peu affinée sur Internet, par
l'intermédiaire de moteurs de recherche, pour
constater que l'information se présente d'abord sous
forme de flux aux proportions quantitatives
inhumaines, difficiles à appréhender. Les croisements
fortuits
d'information
et
les
rapprochements
conceptuels que provoquent ces imprécisions,
peuvent soit générer un enrichissement de
l'information, ou à l'inverse, son appauvrissement.
C'est pourquoi la transformation de l'état de "donnée"
en celui d'"information" impose aux émetteurs de
développer des visions prospectives dont l'objectif est
de penser les potentiels : ceux des usages finaux
comme ceux de la réappropriation de l'information par
l'utilisateur, en particulier leur croisement. De ces
projections doivent naître des outils d'aide à la gestion
des flux d'information, qui se concentrent soit sur le
traitement des données en amont, soit sur le
retraitement de l'information en aval ; avec en toile de
fond une question corollaire : comment s'adresser à
l'utilisateur, le chercheur comme l'explorateur ?
Quelles stratégies éditoriales et de communication,
quels outils, quelles interfaces ? Comment leur rendre
facilement lisible et utilisable l'exponentiel flux
d’information ?
On-line information, with its immaterial character
and the global standardisation of its forms in
constant technical evolution, is constantly
multiplying its sources.
From wherever it
emerges, in a totally delocalised manner, this online data becomes ‘information’; it causes
exponential growth of information flows, in terms of
volume but also in terms of movements.
On the two extreme ends of the spectrum, two
complementary problems are caused concerning
this information status: on the one hand, for the
sender, how to select, organise, and format on-line
information? On the other hand, for the user, how
to search, get through and analyse such
information? For both of them, how to manage
information as a flow? All one has to do is to start
a slightly refined search on the internet using
search engines in order to notice that information is
presented above all in quantities which are of
inhuman proportion, difficult to apprehend.
Serendipitous crossovers of information and
conceptual comparisons can provoke imprecision
either
can
generate
enrichment
or
the
impoverishment of the information.
This is why the transformation from the state of
‘data’ to that of ‘information’ imposes a
responsibility on the senders/generators to develop
future visions based on potentials : those of the
final uses as much as those of the reappropriations of the information by the user,
especially mixings and crossovers. Tools arising
from these projections will help manage the
information flow, either focusing on the prior
treatment of data, or on the subsequent re-treating
of information; with a corollary question in the
background: how to address the user or the
researcher as an explorer? What editorial and
communication strategies? Which tools? Which
interfaces? How can we make this exponential
information flow easier to understand and to use?
Le groupe de travail nourrira le débat de points de vue
et d'exemples variés, y compris antagonistes, et
s'attachera à analyser les intentions et les usages des
modes opératoires concrétisés par des outils
d'aujourd'hui et de demain : gestion des metadonnées, moteurs de recherche, RSS, portails Web,
lettres d’information en ligne, etc… Des débats de
fond et d'actualité, comme celui de la bibliothèque en
ligne universelle, trouveront ici tout leur sens.
This working group will nourish the debate by
looking at diverse and opposing perspectives and
examples, and will analyze the intentions and uses
of operating modes made concrete by today’s and
tomorrow’s tools : meta-data management, search
engines, RSS, Web portals, on-line newsletters,
etc… Fundamental and current debates such as
that of the universal on-line library belong here.
- Atelier 4 - Workshop 4 Enrichir l’expérience
Enriching the experience
D'abord pensée et réalisée comme une simple
transposition de la culture traditionnelle dans le champ
informationnel, la mise en ligne, sur les réseaux de
communication multimédias, ouvre à une expérience de
la culture, voire à une expérimentation culturelle.
L'interactivité inhérente au fonctionnement des réseaux
modifie le schéma classique unidirectionnel de
l'information, assimilable à une consommation de
masse.
At first it was considered a simple transposition of
traditional culture to the information field, but
working on-line via multi-media communication
networks is itself a cultural experience, indeed a
cultural experiment. The interactivity inherent in the
functioning of networks changes the classic onedirectional scheme of information which we
assimilate with mass consumption.
De nouveaux schémas conceptuels de la pensée se
mettent en place, ouvrant à de nouveaux modes
d'organisation non centralisés, transversaux, à la fois
horizontaux et verticaux, grâce à une nouvelle
structuration de l'imaginaire.
Les modèles de
représentation et de conceptualisation s'enrichissent
d'approches relativistes, où tous les éléments sont en
interdépendance.
L'expérience de l'interaction sur laquelle se base le
système de communication et d'émission-réception non
centralisés, génère ainsi naturellement la même envie et
le même besoin d'interaction pour les contenus euxmêmes. Forme et fond de l'information répondent de
plus en plus au principe similaire de l'expérience vécue.
Comment passer de la donnée culturelle à ce type
d'information interactive ? Où se situe, où peut se situer
le champ de cette expérience culturelle ? Comment
attirer l’utilisateur dans le champ du virtuel ?
Plutôt qu'une mutation de la culture, envisageons son
enrichissement par le biais de ces nouvelles approches
et pratiques des contenus : à la source, en créant et
produisant des contenus interactifs qui ajoutent à la
donnée culturelle l'ouverture de points de vue multiples ;
à l'usage, en proposant des schémas évolutifs et des
boucles de rétroaction.
Le groupe de travail débattra de l'influence et tirera les
enseignements des actions menées dans le champ de
la culture en ligne, comme dans ceux qui lui sont
parallèles. Ainsi pourront pas exemple être observés
les objets intelligents et communicants, le secteur des
jeux
vidéo,
les
tentatives
de
collections
muséographiques interactives, les projets d'expositions
virtuelles, etc… La réflexion s'inspirera en particulier
des recherches d'avant-garde menées par les
laboratoires et les artistes exploitant ces nouvelles
technologies
interactives
d'information
et
de
communication.
New conceptual schemes of thought are being put
into place opening up to new, non-centralised,
transversal organisational modes which are both
horizontal and vertical, thanks to a new structuring
of the imagination. Representational models and
models of conceptualisation are enriched by
relativist approaches, in which all elements are
interdependent.
Both the system of communication and the system
of non-centralised emission and reception are
based on interaction. Therefore the same desire
and need for interaction exists for the content itself.
Both the form and the content of the information
increasingly relates to the similar principle of the
“lived experience”. How can we pass from cultural
data to this type of interactive information? Where
do we place ourselves or place the field of this
cultural experience? How do we attract the user
into the virtual field?
Rather than a mutation of culture let’s envisage its
enrichment via new content approaches and
practices: from the source, creating and producing
interactive contents which open up multiple
perspectives on cultural data ; in its use, by
proposing evolving schemes and retroactive loops.
This working group will debate the influence and
draw lessons from actions undertaken in the field of
on-line culture as well as parallel fields. Thus we
could, for example, look at intelligent and
communicating objects, the video games sector,
experiments with interactive museum collections,
virtual exhibition projects, etc… The reflection will
be especially inspired by avant-garde research led
by laboratories and artists exploiting these new
interactive information technologies and the
communication of them.
SEANCE PLENIERE
PLENARY SESSION
CORINA SUTEU (modératrice / moderator)
Consultant and researcher
President of EcumEst
Corina Suteu is consultant and researcher, president of EcumEst (Europe, Culture Management in
Eastern Europe), which develops a wide range of activities in the field of cultural policies and cultural
cooperation aiming at accompanying in a broad sense coherent strategies in the cultural sector. Ms.
Suteu was President of the Forum of European Cultural Networks and former director of the European
Masters degree in Cultural management of the Business School of Dijon. Her fields of expertise
include cultural cooperation and cultural policies in Europe; she is co-initiator of Policies for Culture, a
platform of cultural policy-making in Southeast Europe. She serves as consultant and advisor for a
number of European cultural organizations, including the Council of Europe, UNESCO, the Soros
Foundation, the Boekmanstichting, the European Cultural Foundation, Amsterdam, IETM, ENCATC
networks and for different initiatives in various European countries. She is author of studies and
articles and teaches regularly cultural policies in France, Romania and abroad.
Her involvement as trainer and expert in the launching and development of ‘on –the move’, as well as
her activity linking the use of new technologies by the cultural sector and the operational
competencies of cultural mediators, engaged her participation as co-initiator and one of the general
coordinators (on behalf of IETM) if the Nantes meeting.
CHRISTOPHE GENIN (conférencier)
Maître de conférences à l'U.FR. d'Arts et Sciences de l'art de l'Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
CV Resumé :
Né en 1958, Christophe Genin est agrégé de
philosophie et Docteur ès-Lettres et sciences
humaines. Il est actuellement maître de
conférences à l'U.FR. d'Arts et Sciences de l'art
de l'Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Il y
donne des cours d'esthétique et d'anthropologie
culturelle. Ses recherches actuelles, qui portent
sur les conditions d'interprétation des oeuvres
d'art, l'ont conduit à travailler sur le rôle des
nouveaux médias, en arts comme support ou
matériaux plastiques et visuels, et en
communication comme moyen de diffusion, avec
les conséquences que cette culture émergeante
peut avoir sur les genres et les catégories établis.
Il a publié Réflexions de l'art (Paris, Kimé, 1998),
et co-dirige avec Bernard Darras le site Images
Analyses. Ce site se propose d'analyser toutes
sortes d'images
(tableaux,
photographies,
affiches, webcam, weblog, etc.) en insistant sur
les méthodes d'investigation et sur la diversité
des angles d'études (sémiotique, esthétique,
études culturelles).
Born in 1958, Christophe Genin obtained a PhD
in philosophy and is D.Litt. He is currently a
lecturer in Aesthetics and Cultural Studies at the
University or Paris1 Pantheon-Sorbonne (Arts
and Sciences of arts department). His last
inquiries concerning the meaning of works of arts
induce him to study new medias as artistic
matters or channels of communication. New
means for a new meaning? What are the
consequences of this blossoming culture on our
traditional ways of thinking?
He is the author of Réflexions de l'art (Paris,
Kimé, 1998). Bernard Darras and him are the
editors of a cultural web site: Images
Analyses.This website is intended to be an
introduction to analysis of every kind of images
and pictures (canvas, photography, poster,
webcam, weblog, and so on), linking two
principles: explaining the method of analysis, and
uniting different points of view (semiotics,
aesthetics, cultural studies).
Sujet de conférence :
La culture interactive: entre sens et information
Ce qu'on nomme rapidement aujourd'hui le « numérique » - mot dont il conviendra de préciser la
signification- peut-il produire un authentique monde de culture, par delà la culture technique qu'il
présuppose et les bien culturels dont il est le support? Encore faut-il justement élucider le type de
conception de la culture dans laquelle le numérique peut s'inscrire, non plus comme moyen, mais
comme acteur. Le medium, on le sait, n'est pas neutre : le messager intervient peu ou prou sur la
valeur du message. Dès lors le numérique n'est-il qu'un vecteur d'informations ou un nouveau
producteur de sens ? Comment le numérique peut-il se constituer une identité culturelle ?
Pour esquisser quelques réponses nous irons dans deux directions :
- la distinction entre l'information et le sens ;
- le passage d'une relation culturelle binaire (l'artiste, le public), à une relation ternaire (l'artiste, le
public, les processus de médiation). Nous essayerons donc de montrer la médiation comme
dimension nécessaire de la formation du sens, et de montrer que le numérique trouve sa légitimité
culturelle comme processus de médiation producteur de sens
Article publié:
"Culture numérique": une contradiction dans les termes?
« Nous sommes voyageurs dans ce monde »
Leibniz, Discours de métaphysique.
Résumé
La culture numérique ne semble pas faire question tant l’évidence d’un déploiement technique
rend partout présente la numérisation de nos tâches et de nos œuvres. Les notions
d’interactivité, d’accessibilité, d’ubiquité et de connectivité semblent en être les propriétés les
plus reconnues. Pourtant son mode d’interprétation du monde, fondé sur la cybernétique, ne
cesse de rencontrer des objecteurs, particulièrement chez les métaphysiciens. Le numérique
devient ainsi l’objet d’un clivage entre deux conceptions de la culture : sociologique et
philosophique. Il convient donc d’exposer les raisons, les limites, les présupposés de ce tête-àtête, et de recenser, sans prétendre être exhaustif ni approfondi, les concepts classiques qui
sont retravaillés par la numérisation. Par là même pourrait s’esquisser l’approche d’une identité
numérique.
Mots clés: Anthropologie, art, civilisation mondiale, culture, cybernétique, identité, liberté,
métaphysique
Key-words: Anthropology, arts, culture, cybernetics, freedom, identity, metaphysics, world
civilisation
Schlüsselwörter:
Anthropologie, Bildung, Freiheit, Identität, Kultur, Kunst, Kybernetik,
Metaphysik, Weltzivilisation
I. Introduction: un face-à-face
Nous sommes rassemblés ici pour donner vie et sens à la culture numérique. « Culture
numérique » ? Cette formule semble si évidente! Et pourtant, pour d’aucuns parler de culture
numérique est un oxymore. Comment articuler culture et nombre ? Comment le nombre peut-il
faire culture, être culture ? L’expression de l’esprit serait-elle quantifiable, réductible à un calcul,
qui plus est binaire ? Après tout, ce ne serait pas si idiot. Pythagore, selon lequel « tout est
nombre », avait montré que les mathématiques ordonnaient l’univers des dieux et des hommes.
Boole parvint à exprimer les opérations de l’esprit logique par une algèbre. Aujourd’hui on
appelle ainsi « numérique » ce procédé qui consiste à convertir du qualitatif en quantitatif, à
traduire des quale en quanta, par opposition à la traduction dite analogique.
Partons de constats simples. D’un côté, la culture numérique semble un acquis pour ceux qui
la vivent et la développent. Une évidence due à la cadence soutenue du renouvellement
technique et logique, qui obère bien souvent une réflexion sur les fondements et les finalités
d’une telle présumée culture. D’un autre côté, des résistances, toujours vivaces, voient dans ce
nouveau mode de vie et d’expression un inexorable mouvement de déculturation, si ce n’est de
décadence (Finkielkraut, 2001). La numérisation du monde, des pratiques et des métiers
apparaît alors comme une perte de sens, voire comme un gouffre pour l’existence humaine
aliénée par une technique triomphante.
Ce partage en deux camps est-il sensé ? Les thuriféraires du tout numérique sont persuadés
qu’il change le monde, en quelque sorte que le calcul binaire fait progresser ce monde là où le
marxisme avait échoué à le faire. Mais leur conviction est-elle fondée ? Inversement, les
contempteurs du numérique estiment aussi qu’il change la face du monde, en le perdant. Mais
le péril qu’ils annoncent est-il crédible ? L’un et l’autre suivent en fait une idéologie du
changement (progrès versus décadence) qui les relie dans leur opposition.
Quels sont les présupposés de telles conceptions ? Ont-elles un fond commun, et peut-on
dégager les propriétés de ce que pourrait être une culture proprement numérique ?
II. Deux conceptions de la culture
Par delà l’affrontement entre progressistes et conservateurs, il y va ici d’une divergence de
principe entre deux définitions de la culture.
1. La sociologie de la culture
D’un côté, une conception anthropologique et sociologique, dans la lignée de Tylor (1871) qui
définit la culture comme « ce tout complexe qui comprend le savoir, la croyance, l’art, la morale,
le droit, les coutumes, et toutes les autres capacités et habitudes acquises par un homme
comme membre d’une société. » (That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art,
morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of
society). Pour les tenants de cette vision des choses, le numérique a bien droit au titre de
culture puisqu’il induit de nouvelles pratiques sociales (le courriel, le « chat », le SMS), de
nouvelles habitudes (la conduite guidée par un GPS), des arts nouveaux (l’art numérique), de
nouveaux moyens de diffusion de la culture classique, de nouveaux moyens de production et de
réalisation de la culture émergente (comme le cinéma numérique, les labels musicaux
indépendants). Si la culture désigne un univers d’habitus et de savoirs communs, alors il y a
une culture numérique. Car la pratique d’appareils et de logiciels numériques induit une
complicité : nous nous racontons nos petits malheurs (l’histoire de nos bugs ou de nos virus),
nos petits bonheurs (la découverte de sites passionnants ou surprenants comme
www.JesusMarie.com , arriver à installer un routeur sans fil du premier coup, ou transférer des
fichiers Mac sur PC sans problèmes). Elle induit aussi toutes les modalités du partage des
savoirs, des savoirs informatiques aussi bien que généraux. Cette éthique du partage, de
l’accessibilité, liée au concept de réseau comme à une idéologie « californienne », libéralolibertaire, fondatrice du Web, rencontre certes des limites puissantes dans la loi du marché ou
dans la rémanence de questions juridiques classiques (comme les droits de diffusion ou le
contrôle de l’Etat), toutefois la tendance sociale générale est qu’elle a contribué à minimiser les
rapports de hiérarchie, souvent fondés sur la rétention de l’information, et à valoriser l’idée d’une
responsabilité fondée sur une compétence, non sur le diplôme ou l’entregent, et d’un travail
fondé sur la collégialité. Le concept d’ « auteur » est ainsi remis en question (voir, par exemple,
le « roman génératif » de Jean-Pierre Balpe).
Ainsi, selon l’anthropologie culturelle, une culture numérique existe bien, et trouble les notions
centrales de la culture traditionnelle. D’ores et déjà d’ailleurs la Bibliothèque Nationale de
France archive des sites et des pages liés à des événements importants de la vie politique et
sociale française (comme les élections présidentielles de 2001) ou à la numérisation de son
« enfer » par l’archivage de sites pornographiques. Ceci, bien sûr, pour la joie des chercheurs
du futur…
Plus traditionnellement même, la conception sociologique pourrait voir dans la numérisation
une culture novatrice qui raviverait un antique souci : s’occuper du monde et des autres, en
prendre soin (coleo) par la médiation de techniques de plus en plus fines, et ainsi constituer de
nouveaux rapports humains.
2. La philosophie de la culture
L’affaire semble réglée. Pourtant, d’un autre côté, une conception philosophique, dans la lignée
d’Aristote, de Cicéron, de Herder, pense la culture comme l’éducation de l’homme libre, par
l’exercice de son corps, et le développement de ses facultés intellectuelles et spirituelles par les
arts libéraux, les lettres, les sciences, la religion. Pour les défenseurs de cette autre vision, le
numérique usurpe le titre de culture, car il n’est qu’un procédé scientifico-technique conçu pour
gérer nos affaires courantes et nos tâches serviles. A la rigueur seul l’art numérique mériterait
d’être reconnu comme œuvre culturelle.
Qui plus est, comment parler d’une « culture numérique» quand sous ce vocable on range des
choses hétéroclites comme un procédé d’enregistrement et de restitution du son ou de l’image,
ou des appareils qui bénéficient de ce procédé (caméra, téléphone, lecteur de disques, etc.), ou
des biens culturels produits par ce procédé (disques, sites web), ou des œuvres tirant parti des
nouvelles fonctionnalités permises par ce procédé et ces appareils. Cette « culture » n’a aucune
unité, ni dans ses moyens, ni dans ses fins, ni dans ses objets. Ce n’est pas parce qu’une
imprimante est numérique qu’elle devient ipso facto « culturelle », quand une machine à écrire
mécanique reste dans la catégorie du matériel de bureau.
La conception philosophique interprète cette numérisation comme un abandon de l’esprit qui,
loin d’être le dernier cri de la post-modernité, ne serait que l’ultime version d’un
désenchantement du monde commencé avec la maîtrise scientifico-technique du monde au
è
XVII siècle. En effet, au lieu de se préoccuper des valeurs, du sens de l’existence, cette
technologie ne serait qu’une mise en ordre plus efficace du monde, de sa rentabilisation dans
tous les domaines, y compris dans celui de l’esprit, ainsi réduit à une catégorie de faits
maîtrisables. Loin d’incarner une culture, le numérique en signerait l’arrêt de mort, un arrêt
d’autant moins perceptible qu’il se proposerait justement comme culture de substitution.
Le numérique peut-il donc être une culture, et non faire fonction de culture ? Peut-il inaugurer
une autre spiritualité ou n’est-il pas en train de faire d’ersatz de cultures les nouveaux standards
mondiaux de l’humanité uniformisée ? Que peut le recueillement d’un monastère, avec son
jardin des simples en ordre, son labyrinthe, un flambeau immobile dans la nuit, une cloche qui
résonne sereinement, face à sa numérisation en 3D avec design sonore, boutique virtuelle et
liens avec une agence de voyages, le tout on-line, low cost? Le développement spirituel,
comme accomplissement de l’homme selon le modèle multi-séculaire des arts libéraux, peut-il
être compatible avec le calcul binaire ? En un mot : les puces au silicium sont-elles la mort de
l’âme ?
3. Comment parler de la "culture numérique"?
Pour voir l’aspect problématique de cette question nous devons, pour un temps, suspendre la
conception sociologique.
Nous ne parlerons pas ici du numérique selon le savoir scientifique ou technique qu’il
suppose, puisqu’il s’agit d’un sens particulier du terme de culture (comme on parle de « culture
mathématique »).
Même si la formule « culture numérique » - qui apparaît dans la version 9 de l’Encyclopaedia
Universalis- désigne la diffusion sur Internet de documents virtuels (livres, images, sons)
rivalisant avec les lieux de culture traditionnels que sont les bibliothèques, nous ne parlerons
pas plus du numérique comme moyen de diffusion d’œuvres ou de biens culturels ni comme
support (matériel) d’éléments culturels susceptibles d’exister sur d’autres supports. Des
problèmes se posent dans ces domaines, comme la difficulté pour l’usager de maîtriser de
nouveaux outils de documentation ou le fossé culturel entre les familiers et les exclus du web
(Ghitalla, 2003).
Partons plutôt d’une comparaison : peut-on parler de « culture numérique » comme on parle
d’une « culture du livre » ? Cette dernière englobe deux grands éléments. D’une part, le livre
comme mémoire et diffusion d’un message. Un esprit s’incarne sur un support variable
(parchemin, vélin, papier). En ce sens la culture du livre est la culture acquise dans et par les
livres comme moyen d’accès à la connaissance. D’autre part, le livre comme objet en soi. Dès
son apparition comme fascicule, volumen ou codex, le livre est un bel objet, un objet d’art. En ce
sens la culture du livre est le « beau livre » devenu pour lui-même un pan de la culture, par la
bibliophilie et la splendeur des incunables, des enluminures, des gravures. Le livre se fait art
par un médium devenu fin en soi. La culture du livre signifie donc cette capacité d’un support,
principalement relatif au sens où il relie un auteur à un destinataire, à devenir absolu en faisant
primer le moyen sur la signification. Les amoureux du livre sont les descendants plus ou moins
directs des scribes.
Il n’en est rien dans la culture numérique. Même si une marque, au nom bien écossais,
embellit l’objet ordinateur, le fétichisme des moniteurs n’existe pas, il n’y a aucun scanneur
collector, aucune disquette en édition limitée, numérotée et signée par l’auteur. Aucun pervers
ne s’est mis à collectionner les cartes perforées ou les bandes magnétiques, pourtant très high
tech dans les premiers James Bond ! Aucun nostalgique n’en reste à la version Word 4 ou
Acrobat reader 2, alors même que les vieux Leica ont toujours leurs adeptes. Le support
matériel, dans la culture numérique, ne vaut donc pas pour lui-même. Un ordinateur n’est pas
comparable à un appareil photographique, objet technique qui peut valoir pour lui-même par la
qualité de son mécanisme, de sa chambre, de ses optiques, mais à une calculette qu’on jette
quand un modèle supérieur est mis sur le marché. Le support numérique est consommable, pris
irréversiblement dans la marche du progrès technique et la rotation des marchandises
perfectibles. La machine à calculer de Pascal est conservée à titre historique, mais aucun
étudiant n’en voudrait lors d’un examen !
La culture numérique n’est donc pas du côté de l’objet (hardware), indubitablement un bien de
consommation (ware). Elle est dans l’esprit et l’usage qui font fonctionner cet automate. Nous
devons donc parler du numérique comme un mode de penser qui avance une thèse sur le
monde : tout ce qui existe est susceptible de relever d’un programme, lui-même susceptible
d’être exprimé par un calcul binaire, lui-même susceptible de permettre toutes sortes de
simulations et d’actions prédéterminées.
Les automates modernes sont des machines qui, comme toute machine, transforment de
l’énergie, non pour produire du mouvement, de la chaleur, mais de l’information.
Traditionnellement l’information est interprétée comme la transmission d’une signification d’une
conscience intentionnée à une autre conscience destinataire. Elle est ainsi comprise dans
l’horizon d’une intentionnalité intersubjective. En ce sens l’idée d’une machine à information
semble absurde. Cela reviendrait à automatiser la pensée, à parler de finalité mécanique, ce qui
paraît être une contradiction de principes.
A vrai dire il n’y a là qu’une ambiguïté de vocabulaire. L’information ne signifie pas ici faire
connaître, mais faire agir en déclenchant et contrôlant une action par une impulsion codée,
selon la définition de l’information par Wiener (1948) : « une suite continue ou discontinue
d’événements mesurables, distribués dans le temps ». C’est bien pourquoi la numérisation, la
réduction de toute information à un système binaire, à un jeu d’entrée et de sortie, s’est appelée
cybernétique : l’art de gouverner, cher à Platon, réduit à un programme d’actions logiquement
calculées par la « science du contrôle par machines à information », selon la définition de Ruyer
(1954). Dès lors, la critique d’une culture numérique, c’est-à-dire d’une spiritualité réductible à
un programme, exige d’en remonter au projet cybernétique.
III. La critique de la cybernétique par Heidegger.
La numérisation, par-delà un simple moyen, est un projet de domination. Heidegger pense que
le calcul à l’œuvre dans la cybernétique dépasse le stade des moyens. D’où quatre
observations de principe.
1. La cybernétique abolit toute référence au concept de fondement
Le fondement avait traditionnellement pour fonction de légitimer une série de savoirs par le
renvoi à un principe indiscutable (Dieu, le cogito) et d’unifier ces savoirs en les hiérarchisant
selon leur nécessité et leur degré d’application, des sciences fondamentales aux sciences
appliquées. D’où le modèle cartésien de l’arbre : une racine, la métaphysique, un tronc, la
mathématique, et des branches, mécanique, médecine et morale. Or la cybernétique est une
discipline étrange qui ordonne divers savoirs : la logique, l’algèbre, le calcul, la physique,
l’électronique, mais aussi les sciences cognitives ou les sciences du vivant. Née de la rencontre
de mathématiciens (Wiener, von Neumann), de physiciens, de techniciens (Bush, Bigelow), de
physiologistes (Shannon, Mac Culloch), elle n’est pas une application de plus, mais une
réorganisation de savoirs et de techniques existants, demandant pour se développer l’irruption
de savoirs et de techniques nouvelles à son service. L’unification des sciences ne se fait donc
plus en référence à une origine théorique commune, comme ce fut de Platon à Husserl, mais
par des relations de réciprocité entre sciences fondamentales et techniques appliquées
induisant une sorte d’incessante inversion des statuts.
Ainsi la numérisation requise pour produire de l’information, c’est-à-dire mettre en ordre des
séries de commandes et mettre en œuvre le contrôle d’actions prédéfinies devant rétroagir en
vue d’un objectif déterminé, devient un moyen de transcription universel. Le mode numérique,
initialement bon pour programmer un tir aérien, peut s’étendre à la restitution de la perception
tactile, visuelle, sonore ou olfactive. Tout relève potentiellement d’un comput. En peu d’années
l’assistanat par ordinateur s’est amplifié : architecte, secrétaire, photographe, tailleur, soldat,
professeur, médecin, D.J., documentaliste, plasticien. Alors qu’hier bon nombre de professions
ne recouraient pas au livre (comme un radiologue ou un chauffagiste), aujourd’hui elles utilisent
presque toutes des instruments numériques.
2. La cybernétique est la victoire de la méthode sur la science elle-même.
Elle est « la victoire de la méthode » par une calculabilité de tout existant, inerte ou vivant, y
compris l’homme, en vue d’une maîtrise totale et uniforme. Elle met donc en œuvre « le projet
de tout soumettre au calcul » (der Entwurf auf Berechenbarkeit). Initialement elle fut un projet
pour produire des automates capables d’exécuter des tâches programmées. Mais la
programmation est plus qu’une méthode de traitement logico-mathématique de l’information, ou
qu’une mise en ordre de tâches répétitives : elle est une thèse sur le vivant. Si par
l’autorégulation le vivant fut le modèle d’un mécanisme rétroactif, à la base de la cybernétique,
inversement l’ordre immanent au vivant dans ses gènes est pensé selon le modèle d’un
programme informatique, et est donc calculable, au point d’ailleurs, dans le récent projet
Généthon, que l’ordinateur peut, par sa puissance de calcul, cartographier l'ensemble du
génome de l'homme, génome lui-même conçu comme de l'information (la fonction d'un gène est
de stocker de l'information et de la dupliquer). Dès lors, l’homme n’est plus le chercheur ou
l’acteur du monde numérique ; il en devient l’objet, un objet numérisable comme les autres donc
transformable, manipulable : il sera possible « un jour de venir un jour à bout de la productibilité
et de l’élevage scientifico-technique de l’homme » (eines Tages die wissenschaftlich-technische
Herstellbarkeit und Züchtung des Menschens in den Griff zu bekommen). Si culture numérique il
y a ce n’est pas une culture de l’âme (Bildung), mais une culture de souches (Züchtung) qu’on
peut produire et sélectionner en laboratoire.
3. La cybernétique porte atteinte à la liberté de l'homme
Projet de l’homme à la conquête du monde, de l’espace, la numérisation a un effet retour sur
l’homme même. La cybernétique en guidant uniformément nos conduites par une conception de
l’homme contrôlable induirait une « captivité » (Gefangenschaft [1967]) : l’homme serait inclus
dans son monde scientifico-technique et ne pourrait plus en sortir puisque sa propre résistance
à toute anticipation ou programmation serait réduite par la futurologie. Nous pourrions dire que
le comble de l’illusion de liberté serait atteint par l’interactivité : l’usager croit faire des choix,
naviguer selon sa volonté, produire des itinéraires inédits là où il ne fait qu’exprimer les
potentialités d’un programme. En termes métaphysiques traditionnels, le libre-arbitre interactif
serait d’autant plus illusoire qu’il n’arrive pas à se réfléchir comme serf-arbitre. La planification
de toute tâche pourrait même s’étendre à l’art.
4. La cybernétique redéfinit l'œuvre d'art et le champ culturel
« Qu’en est-il de l’art dans la société industrielle, dont le monde commence à devenir
cybernétique ? » (Wie steht es mit der Kunst innerhalb der Industriegesellschaft, deren Welt
eine kybernetische zu werden beginnt[1967]). L’œuvre d’art n’est plus la libre ouverture d’un
monde, l’accomplissement de l’esprit, mais l’art en général devient une «activité culturelle »
(Kulturbetrieb). La culture devient une somme de « produits » dits culturels, disponibles et
planifiables. Elle n’est plus de l’ordre du libre accomplissement personnel, mais du produit
industriellement programmable et massivement consommable. La culture est devenue un pan
immatériel de l’industrie. Mais la cybernétique étend son modèle d’autorégulation par rétroaction
à la culture comprise comme une rétroaction de la société industrielle et du monde technicoscientifique. Dans une civilisation mondiale pour laquelle le numérique est devenu un mode de
fonctionnement et de développement nécessaire (cela se voit a contrario lorsque des virus
informatiques endommagent des réseaux), dans une telle civilisation la culture est elle-même
numérisée, par des supports ou des œuvres numériques, et apparaît donc comme une valeur
de régulation, pour montrer que le numérique n’est pas inhumain et dominateur puisque
justement il produit du culturel ! La culture n’est plus un recueillement intime, mais un
divertissement de masse.
Heidegger en conclut que la cybernétique est un manque d’éducation [1964, 1965] parce
qu’elle est le comble d’une rationalisation ramenant toutes les affaires humaines au
démontrable et au prouvable, avec pour antidote l’œuvre d’art : « ne faut-il pas que l’œuvre d’art
(…) réveille en l’homme la pudeur devant ce qui ne se laisse ni planifier ni diriger, ni calculer ni
faire ? » [1967]. La culture ne peut plus donc être le temps de la méditation. Elle est prise dans
un vaste mouvement de planification et de régulation d’une société industrielle mondiale. D’où
un ultime concept : la Bestellbarkeit [1969] la « commandabilité », ou le fait de rendre tout
existant, quel qu’il soit (un minerai, une forêt, un livre, une fusée, un homme, etc.) disponible à
la commande. Il y a donc bien une « culture numérique », qui n’est pas celle que l’on croit. Elle
prend son origine dans l’idée de progrès, dans la mathématisation du monde et de la technique,
dans l’idée que le calcul est l’essence de la pensée. Le terme de « logiciel » le dit bien : tout ce
qui est pensable doit être calculable.
IV. Comment penser la culture numérique?
1. Concilier commande et liberté
Heidegger voit un point crucial de notre époque : nous ne pensons plus la disponibilité comme
une vacance, une ouverture librement offerte à l’accueil, mais comme ce qui est à tout moment
susceptible d’être sommé d’obéir à une commande. L’homme se réquisitionne lui-même : sa
perception est simulée par des capteurs, sa pensée est assimilée à un programme.
Il y a là l’antique crainte de la manipulation : l’illusion de choisir librement alors même que nous
serions guidés par des influences occultes : « L’homme n’a plus la technique en main. Il en est
le jouet » [1969] Le grief récurrent contre la cybernétique, contre l’informatique, contre Internet
est celui de la manipulation. Comme dans les meilleurs James Bond un Spectre hante donc le
numérique : le Chiffre ! Avec ses webcams placées partout le Chiffre nous conditionnerait en
jouets téléguidés.
En fait dénoncer la manipulation est l’objet même de la pensée critique. Platon en son temps
révoquait la sophistique, projet de réduire les hommes à des « marionnettes », de les enchaîner
dans un théâtre d’ombres où ils croiraient voir le monde librement dans la plus parfaite des
illusions. Aujourd’hui , la menace a pris une teneur high tech : les androïdes et autres
Répliquants de Blade Runner ont remplacé les marionnettes, et la télévision numérique se
substitue à la Caverne. Autrement dit, le problème n’est pas la numérisation, comme si ce
développement scientifico-technique induisait une nouvelle menace dont les scientifiques ne
seraient pas conscients, et seraient même les véhicules aveugles, mais la dictature, aussi
ancienne que les rapports de pouvoir, la propagande et la crédulité.
Le numérique n’est donc pas un agent de domination par essence. En quoi un scannage
détectant une tumeur, un diagnostic par téléconférence, une opération téléguidée, trois actions
numérisables, relèveraient-ils de la perte de liberté, de la déculturation ? La numérisation peut
certes être condamnable quand, mise au point par des militaires, elle vise à assurer une
hégémonie niant la liberté des peuples à disposer d’eux-mêmes. Mais quand bien même le
numérique exprimerait un projet de maîtrise du monde et de l’homme, l’intelligence humaine
n’est pas la victime aveugle d’un tel projet et est capable de le réorienter pour le progrès
matériel et moral de l’humanité.
Il ne s’agit donc pas de prendre parti pour un camp contre l’autre mais de voir que tous deux
renvoient, pour des raisons opposés, à l’irresponsabilité. La critique métaphysique s’imagine un
monde composé d’irresponsables, « jouets » inconscients d’un projet planétaire qui les
dépasserait. Et il est vrai que les thuriféraires du tout numérique présentent une forme
d’irresponsabilité, en étant captivés par la magie merveilleuse d’une technique triomphante qui
transforme notre Terre en pays des fées, oubliant alors de voir à quoi répond cette technique et
qui peut en répondre. Leibniz appelait Dieu « ordinateur du monde » ; nous pourrions dire
aujourd’hui que l’ordinateur est un petit dieu, ayant ses propriétés cardinales (omniscience,
omnipotence, omniprésence). Il serait plus pertinent de relever les processus de
responsabilisation en tentant de détecter les appropriations des outils et les résistances à la
propagande, mêmes minimes, par lesquels tout un chacun agit de son propre chef sans s’en
laisser conter par des pouvoirs établis .
2. Où donc trouver la culture numérique?
Stricto sensu une culture numérique devrait consister à œuvrer un objet original, sui generis,
n’existant que dans le monde numérique, bien au-delà d’une simple mise en ligne de produits
pouvant exister autrement ou ailleurs. Non pas une culture sur le numérique mais provenant du
numérique. Par ailleurs gardons en tête de tenir la culture pour la formation de l’homme libre. Le
numérique peut-il donc produire cela ? Cette formation ne s’est jamais faite dans l’absolu mais
relativement à des lieux de culture, d’éducation, d’instruction (le temple, le palais, le forum,
l’école). La culture est ainsi faite de relations humaines et de lieux où ces relations peuvent se
nouer, se défaire et se retrouver.
Quels seraient donc les lieux où la culture numérique pourrait se constituer?
Il y a bien sûr les cyber-cafés, ces espaces monacaux où les jeunes ne se parlent pas,
recueillis dans le silence de leur cellule informatique, mais sont en communication avec des voix
venus d’ailleurs. Il y a bien sûr les sites culturels. Ils ne sont pas la simple mise en ligne
d’institutions déjà existantes (comme les Anglais parlent de clic and mortar), mais sont conçus
d’emblée comme des entités strictement virtuelles, exploitant toutes les fonctionnalités du
numérique. Un des éléments importants est moins l’hypertexte, qui reprend le principe des
renvois encyclopédiques, que les liens qui, dans un seul site, tissent de fil en aiguille une Toile
indéfinie. Ces liens sont aussi internes aux moyens employés : le multimédia comme liaisons
organiques de dimensions complémentaires. Dans un CD-Rom sur l’histoire d’une ville
récemment produit par mes étudiants en DESS multimédias, une étudiante (Isabelle Jouve) a
eu une étincelle pour donner à l’usager une vision synoptique des animatiques portant sur telle
ou telle période ou une vision globale des demeures historiques de la ville, de les incruster en
vignettes cliquables sur une sphère rotative à vitesse variable, donnant un aperçu intuitif et
interactif de ce que les clics peuvent déployer. Cet objet sphère, faisant fonction de résumé de
plusieurs chapitres, d’illustration typique de chaque sujet, de menu à choisir, d’accès à chaque
page, d’animation à part entière, récréative et informative, n’existe et ne peut exister que dans
un monde numérique. Il y a bien culture au sens où un ars inveniendi se met en place pour
trouver librement une solution nouvelle à un problème nouveau, ce qui suppose un exercice du
jugement, la numérisation, comme technique, permettant alors l’accomplissement d’un style :
une manière dont la liberté exprime un bel esprit.
Plus radicalement le lieu où se joue le lien entre information et interprétation est le corps.
Il y aurait beaucoup à dire sur les changements de perception induits par la numérisation. En
effet, pour ma génération dont l’oreille fut formée à l’écoute des disques microsillons en vinyle,
le passage au son digital fut un bouleversement perceptif par l’abolition du souffle. Un son
« pur », sans distorsion semblait inimaginable. L’enregistrement digital nous a habitués à une
qualité de son totalement artificielle, puisque l’écoute naturelle est toujours altérée peu ou prou
par des sons parasites (comme les toussotements lors d’un concert). Il en va de même pour
l’œil, par le passage des pellicules plus ou moins rayées ou des bandes magnétiques au disque
laser, ce dernier donnant une définition d’image identique à la perception naturelle. L’idée même
de « définition » d’un son, d’une image, de toute perception en général change le rapport de tout
un chacun à son propre corps.
Prenons un exemple. Qu’est-ce qu’une image numérique? Non plus une forme perçue par nos
yeux, reconnue et identifiée comme une rose, une belle femme, un pont, mais une somme de
pixels. Ce picture element (pixel) est un schéma géométrique simple, un carré, qui additionné à
d’autres identiques produit un effet d’image reconnaissable. Les idéalistes dénonceront cette
perception illusoire : nous n’avons pas une rose sous les yeux, mais une collection de carrés.
L’image numérique est donc un trompe-l’œil. Mais nous confondons alors deux notions : la
perception et la définition physique. Nous percevons le vieux rose comme distinct du rose
fuchsia. Pour identifier ces qualités nous référons à des choses perçues, au point de confondre
la chose et la valeur chromatique qu’elle exprime. Mais ces deux tons de rose ne sont que des
intensités du spectre lumineux, exprimables par une abscisse et une ordonnée. Une couleur
numérique n’est donc en rien illusoire, mais ce qui nous fait accroire une illusion c’est qu’elle
n’est plus liée au support physique auquel nous l’associons lors d’une perception naïve.
Inversement il nous faut comprendre qu’associer un sens et une perception n’est qu’un préjugé
de l’habitude. Le numérique nous délivre de nos habitudes en nous ouvrant un horizon indéfini
de potentialités et de combinaisons perceptives dont les conséquences cognitives restent
encore à élaborer.
Toutes nos perceptions sont donc susceptibles d’être simulées, non par volonté de tromperie
mais parce qu’une perception est une information non liée à tel support physique, mais
comprise comme un effet. Lorsque je dors et rêve que je tape sur mon clavier, je sens mes
doigts qui appuient sur les touches, alors que mes mains sont inertes sous les draps, de même
lors d’une simulation numérique je rêve éveillé puisque des capteurs, des contacteurs me
restituent des perceptions qui sont liées à ma mémoire sensorielle mais non à la rencontre de
l’objet auquel je les associe. Par cette dissociation de l’information et du support naturel
habituel, la numérisation est analogue à la chimie capable de produire des arômes artificiels. En
quelque sorte le virtuel serait une information artificielle, une information de synthèse.
C’est pourquoi dans l’art numérique le corps n’est plus simplement percepteur, mais devient
ordonnateur d’événements qui peuvent rétroagir sur lui, en dissociant telle perception de tel
retour sensible. Par exemple un geste peut déclencher un environnement de couleurs. C’est
toute une phénoménologie de la perception qu’il faut repenser à l’aune de la numérisation de
nos perceptions. La culture numérique est bien ici une attention autre portée à son corps, une
rééducation de la perception, le virtuel signifiant alors que l’attestation d’existence n’est rien
d’autre qu’une crédibilité de la perception due à la prégnance de la sensation sur notre
conscience interprétative .
De là tout un chacun voit que la culture numérique relève du style néo-baroque par cette idée
que l’illusion est l’expression de la condition humaine, corps et âme. Les artistes ne s’y sont pas
trompés de Tron à Matrix en passant par Exiztenz : l’existence humaine est prise en boucle
dans la virtualité qu’elle a mis en œuvre, au point que la réflexivité critique ne peut plus opérer
dans une mise en abyme du jeu perceptif.
L’information n’est pas localisée dans un corps, dans une substance, mais est une relation qui
se décline par démultiplication et dispersion. En cela même la relation sujet/objet est réformée.
Le rapport de l’homme au monde n’est plus un vis-à-vis mais une interpénétration. Le sujet est
objectivé : il est interprété comme un système de signaux et de capteurs, reproductible par des
automatismes. Symétriquement l’objet numérique est subjectivisé : par des programmes variés,
par l’interactivité, par des fonctions « intelligentes », l’objet fait fonction de conseil ou
d’interlocuteur. Cet objectivation de l’homme n’est pas une aliénation. Au contraire, c’est parce
qu’il reste un agent libre, maître de se gouverner lui-même, que l’homme reste le modèle
inégalé des automatismes autogouvernés, le jugement libre n’ayant pas encore été déchiffré !
3. Le rapport espace / temps
La numérisation nous amène à repenser le lieu de la culture comme un changement du
concept même de lieu puisque l’information n’est pas liée à son substrat. Pour Heidegger le lieu
était un enracinement géographique, un Da, un ici-bas inscrit dans un terroir (Heimat)
différencié, orienté, au point que l’Etre était la relation entre un peuple et son terroir (ce qui l’a
porté à écouter les sirènes du nazisme). Le lieu est un lieu d’être. C’est là un préjugé, car on
peut être du même lieu sans être du même monde ! Le monde numérique, lui, est indifférencié :
la planétarisation est de partout sans être de nulle part. Le lieu est le lien ; l’être est la
connexion. Pour baragouiner allemand je dirai que le numérique annonce un « Dortsein », au
sens où « Wer ist dort ? » signifie « qui est au bout du fil ? ». Etre est le lien entre ici et là-bas.
Exister n’est plus l’affirmation d’un chez-soi borné, mais une vie à ciel ouvert dans le croisement
des trajectoires. Voici une jeunesse qui s’expose : combien de webcams, de weblogs dévoilent
l’intimité de personnes livrées à l’indiscrétion planétaire, non pas pour établir un couple
exhibitionniste/voyeur, mais parce que le temps de la rencontre bat le rythme d’une existence.
Jamais exister n’a été aussi proche de son étymologie : se tenir hors de soi (ex-stare) dans
l’appréhension de l’autre.
Juste une anecdote. Quand j’étais enfant le numéro de téléphone de mon appartement était
SAB 44 37, se lisait Sablons 44 37, car l’immeuble était construit dans le quartier des Sablons,
porte Maillot, là où Parmentier fit pousser les premières pommes de terre françaises ! La
communication était fixée dans un sol, liée à une histoire. Aujourd’hui mon adresse courriel est
[email protected] . Cette adresse n’est d’aucun lieu. Quand je n’étais plus aux
Sablons la communication était coupée. Aujourd’hui je joins et suis joignable de n’importe où.
Mon téléphone fixe était un objet du salon. Aujourd’hui mon téléphone mobile est une carte Sim.
L’identité de l’objet n’est plus dans son lieu ni dans sa fonction, mais dans son processeur, le
corps physique du téléphone étant interchangeable. D’ailleurs une même information circule sur
des machines interchangeables : le téléphone devient télévision, l’organiser fait ordinateur, et la
montre fait téléphone. Ce qui laisse songeur sur l’identité humaine, sur sa mémoire
interchangeable comme dans Total Recall.
Cette ubiquité oblige à ne pas penser l’espace comme un espacement (ce que fait Heidegger),
une distance entre le proche et le lointain, mais comme la condition d’une co-présence, donc
comme un temps commun. Qu’est-ce qui constitue la « présence » numérique ? Si tout est lié
en réseau alors ici a toujours une voie d’accès à là-bas dans un même maintenant. L’espace
n’est donc pas une séparation qui écarte deux points, mais au contraire l’ouverture qui permet
leur maintien commun dans le temps de leur connexion. Dans la culture numérique le temps et
l’espace ne sont pas des dimensions disjointes mais corrélatives, comme dans le Ma japonais.
V. Conclusion
Il y a bien une culture numérique. Comme toute culture son enjeu central est l’identité.
Aujourd’hui bien des aspects de la numérisation du monde nous semblent produire une
désidentification par la perte de tout ce qui constituait le chez-soi (traditions, territoire, titres).
Encodées les choses du monde perdent de leur substance. L’homme lui-même n’est plus sujet
axial, mais flux dans des flux. Cette culture ne relève pas de la logique de prédication, qui
suppose une substance, mais de la logique de relation qui ordonne des variables. Elle ne
s’oriente pas depuis une transcendance mais en reste à l’immanence. Epicure, Lucrèce
n’auraient pas désavoué notre monde, eux qui pensèrent l’ordre du monde comme symplokè,
la connexion qui organise un espace dans le temps d’une correspondance entre deux éléments
au moins. Le portrait virtuel de Leibniz, fondateur du calcul binaire, penseur de la
communication, de la connexion et des « automates spirituels », démarre à chacune de nos
connexions.
Une autre conception de l’identité est à construire, non plus l’intime, ce dedans du dedans
(intimus), mais le voisinage, ce partage du même chemin (vicinus), non plus le moi-je, mais le
toi et moi, le mutuel. Et la jeunesse est en train de la bâtir sous nos yeux.
Bibliographie :
- « Art nouveau et techniques nouvelles : l'art à l'âge de l' électron », Actes des journées
académiques de philosophie, MAFPEN / CRDP, Paris, 2000.
- "Contre Internet, l'inquiétante extase de Finkielkraut et Soriano", in Médiations Et Informations,
n°15 (Paris, Harmattan, 2001, pp.181-192)
-co-direction du site Images analyses http://imagesanalyses.univ-Paris1.fr La culture numérique
: entre sens et information.
MICHEL G. WESSELING (conférencier)
Head of Library and IT Services at the Institute of Social Studies Den Haag / Free lance consultant
and Technical Advisor to the LAB project.
Michel G Wesseling is Head of the Library and IT Services division at the Institute of Social Studies in
The Hague (The Netherlands) and free lance consultant in the area of library and IT management. In
the past 25 years he worked as a product and marketing manager and later as general manager in the
software industry for libraries. He also lead the first automation department of the Dutch National
Library between 1989 and 1993.
Michel is currently involved as a technical advisor to the LAB project: G2CC, with specific attention for
metadata and subject classification development. An important part of the project creates a search
engine to disclose information from web resources in the area of cultural mobility and cross border
cooperation in Europe. Based on Michels extensive experience in the software development in
combination with his knowledge of library techniques, the G2CC will improve searching by adding
metadata elements and classification to the web resources.
Recherche présentée:
“The dematerialization of the Library”
Presentation for the colloquium: “Culture and Online Information”
Nantes Conference on Interactive Culture on June 23, 2005
Introduction
When I was confronted with the question to talk about the “dematerialization of the library”, I first
wanted to find out what those two terms actually mean: dematerialization and library.
Consulting traditional dictionaries does not really bring much. So I looked in Google with one of
the many hidden functions of this search engine: “define”. Typing “define: dematerialization”
resulted in some intriguing descriptions of the word, most related to paranormal appearances or
to be more precise “disappearances”.
I decided to define the word as: “The gradual fading and disappearance of a physical object”
and I expect that we all here understand a little bit of what is meant.
The word library does not seem to cause this type of problems: we all know what is meant by “a
library”: a room or building with a vast number of books. That’s clear, or isn’t it?
In this presentation I will talk about the dematerialization of the library and introduce you to
“librarian” thinking. I hope to be able to guide you through this world, showing how librarians
faced technological changes in conjunction with limitations in budget and accordingly adapted
their practices. I wish to demonstrate to you how libraries took advantage of the new
technologies to develop new products and services.
The dematerialization of the library could be an example for the cultural sector, especially in
today’s colloquium about: “Culture and Online Information”.
The Library
In my introduction I already alluded to the definition for the word “library”. Laymen like to think of
it as a room or building with a number of books, and the physical appearance of the library in
many cases reinforces this picture.
Consulting Google defines also resulted in similar descriptions:
5
Definitions of library on the Web :
- a room where books are kept; "they had brandy in the library"
- a collection of literary documents or records kept for reference or borrowing
- a depository built to contain books and other materials for reading and study
- (computing) a collection of standard programs and subroutines that are stored and available
for immediate use
- a building that houses a collection of books and other materials. www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgibin/webwn2.1
- In its traditional sense, a library is a collection of books and periodicals. It can refer to an
individual's private collection, but more often, it is a large collection that is funded and
5
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=define%3A+library
maintained by a city or institution, and is shared by many people who could not afford to
purchase so many books by themselves. However, with the collection or invention of media
other than books for storing information, many libraries are now also repositories and/or access
points for maps, prints or other materials. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library
However the original assignments for librarians are a lot more philosophical. Again I turn to
Google, but not to the search engine but to a presentation that was held on February 15, 2005
by John Lewis Needham, Development Manager at Google: “What is Google doing in my
library?”. In his presentation Needham refers to the mission statement of Google: “To organize
the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”. This sounds like a
definition of the library profession and if you would ask librarians how they see their tasks, in
many cases they will come up with similar definitions.
Actually the first well known example of a library (“Bibliotheca Alexandrina”) had almost the
same mission, be it somewhat more limited in scope: “To collect and archive all the knowledge
in the world”. As you may be aware the original library was destroyed and in 1990 the building of
6
a new library started with the Aswan Declaration from which I quote two parts:
“At the beginning of the third century before our era, a great enterprise was conceived in
ancient Alexandria, meeting-place of peoples and cultures: the edification of a Library in the
lineage of Aristotle’s Lyceum, transposing Alexander’s dreams of empire into a quest for
universal knowledge.”
“By gathering together all the known sources of knowledge and organizing them for the
purposes of scholarly study and investigation, they marked the foundation of the modern notion
of the research institute and, therefore, of the university. Within this haven of learning, the arts
and sciences flourished for some six centuries alongside scholarship. The classification and
exegesis of the classical literary canon nourished the poetic wit of Callimachus and the pastoral
muse of Theocritus. Study of the theories of the masters of Greek thought, informed by the new
Alexandrian spirit of critical and empirical inquiry, yielded major insights and advances in those
branches of science associated with the names of Euclid, Herophilus, Erastosthenes,
Aristarchus, Ptolemy, Strabo, Archimedes and Heron.”
The striking resemblance between the missions of Google and the “Bibliotheca Alexandrina” lies
in the word: “organizing”. And for me that is what libraries are all about: organizing access to
the world’s knowledge.
Disruptive technologies
When librarians started to organize the knowledge and information in the world, they created
card catalogues that provided “virtual” access to the real collections: in stead of having to go into
the library and wandering through enormous warehouses with millions of books, getting lost in
the knowledge space, one could just browse the card catalogue at it’s own ease. Even books
that were lent out were still accessible. As a matter of fact the librarians started to understand
the value of the card catalogue, not only as an access point to the collections, but also as a
means for rebuilding the collections in case of fires or other disasters.
th
The first union catalogues originate from the beginning of the 20 century: national libraries
created a catalogue of materials that were in possession of –in most cases the university—
libraries in the country. People who visited the national library could herewith not only browse
the own collection of the National Library, but also those of all participating libraries in the
country.
It is not by coincidence that this development took place at that particular time: it can be
considered as one of the results of the introduction of technologies. The creation of the union
catalogue was not a purpose in itself: the user could request the book from the remote library
through the inter library loan systems that were created in many European countries and that
were enabled thanks to the existence of railways and PTT’s, both for mail transportation and
telephony. One might consider these as the first “disruptive” technologies that allowed improved
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http://www.touregypt.net/library/revivald.htm
use of library resources and librarians happily welcomed the advantages of it, allowing a better
service to their users. The dematerialization of the library was a fact!
In more recent times the combination of network technology and computer power created
massive change that also affected the library community.
The increasing power of computers and storage capacity allowed libraries to produce new
services. I like to illustrate this with two examples, both related to rare book materials. These
examples are the result of over 10 years scanning, digitization and indexing: the first results of
the Project Gutenberg were no more than mere text transcriptions of the original book and
7
reading them from a screen is not very attractive . But it is an example of the start of the
dematerialization of libraries, because no longer one needs to physically enter the library to
obtain the book.
It can be argued whether the text of books, really represents the full value of the artistic
expression. This created a new challenge and libraries have experimented with creating
additional value to the materials.
8
The first example is a digital copy of Flemish Masters . It has been scanned by the British
Library and is now made available on the internet for use by individuals around the globe:
scientists, amateurs and general public.
It is interesting to see how clear the information is displayed. But if you wish you can even take
the magnifying glass to look at the manuscript in much more detail.
The application allows presenting a small text with some clarifications about the material and if
you wish the text can be spoken to you.
You may understand how enthusiastic librarians are with this application, but maybe even more
how this increases the use of materials that have been hidden in the stacks of the library for
ages and that can now really be used by everybody, 24 hours per day.
9
Another application can be found in the Dutch National Library . Like other National libraries
they scanned thousands of newspapers, in this case from the period between 1910 and 1945.
Rather than just having these papers scanned, they are also indexed on every word, which
makes it possible to search for terms that have been used.
All of a sudden these newspapers, who’s existence was threatened by physical corrosion and
therefore were about to dematerialize, are now saved, preserved for the future and accessible
for researchers around the globe.
There are many interesting projects going on in the library world whereby materials that were
virtually dematerialized or at least invisible, are now being presented to the global community. In
10
the library profession this is known as “Preservation by Access” : it means that the hidden
materials will reach new audiences and therefore their long term preservation is guaranteed.
The new library services also create new challenges and opportunities for scientists: imagine a
rare book, such as the Gutenberg Bible or the Bleau Atlas. Of these titles the first prints are kept
in a limited number of special research libraries, scattered over the globe, such as Oxford
University, Bibliothèque National de France or the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Until today it was not
possible to compare these first versions, but now that they are scanned and available on the
internet, researchers are able to do so.
With the limited means and budgets available to libraries, the scanning of books takes place at a
relatively slow pace. At the end of last year Google announced a massive scanning project in
their library cooperation program: Google Print. Together with a number of major libraries, such
as the Bodleian Library of Oxford University, Harvard, Stanford and the University of Michigan
as well as the New York Public Library, Google will digitize, OCR and make accessible millions
of books that are currently only available in these individual libraries. After the digitization project
these books will be available to everybody around the world.
The influence of communication networks (i.e. the internet and the world wide web) on the day
to day work of the librarian should not be underestimated. Especially since Google started their
latest version of the search engine, which specializes in searching scholarly content, libraries
are faced with drastic changes. Scientific information produced all over the world can be found
through one single interface: http://scholar.google.com. One search in this system would
suggest that libraries are already totally dematerialized.
7
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/1/5/14155/14155-8.txt
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/digitisation4.html
9
http://kranten.kb.nl/index2.html
10
http://www.library.cornell.edu/preservation/brittle.html
8
As you will understand: the influence of the new technology (networks, mass storage) and
software (scanning, searching) create immense opportunities for libraries, the general public and
scholars.
Threat or opportunity?
It has taken the library community quite a while before they got to grips with the new situation. In
the beginning of the nineties of the last century librarians spent a lot of time at conferences and
in their journals discussing about the future of the profession and the fear that libraries would
disappear. It now becomes more and more clear how important libraries are and will remain.
“…transforming millions more books into bits is sure to change the habits of library patrons.
What, then, will become of libraries themselves? Once the knowledge trapped on the printed
page moves onto the web, where people can retrieve it from their homes, offices and dorm
rooms, libraries could turn into lonely caverns inhabited mainly by preservationists. Checking out
a library book could become as anachronistic as using a pay phone, visiting a travel agent to
book a flight, or sending a handwritten letter by post.
Surprisingly however most backers of library digitization expect exactly the opposite effect. They
point out that libraries in the United States are gaining users, despite the advent of the web, and
that libraries are being constructed or renovated at and unprecedented rate (architect Rem
Koolhaas’s Seattle Central Library, for example, is the new jewel of that city’s downtown). And
st
they predict that 21 century citizens will head to their local libraries in even greater numbers,
whether to use their free internet terminals, consult reference specialists or find physical copies
of copyrighted books. (Under the Google model only snippets from these books will be viewable
on the web, unless their authors and publishers agree otherwise). And considering that the flood
of new digital material will make the job of classifying, cataloguing and guiding readers to the
11
right texts even more demanding, librarians could become busier than ever”
It seems that books and journals are being dematerialized but that libraries have a strong future.
What could have been the success factors?
First of all I believe that libraries have taken advantage of their national, international and global
cooperation. Through their networks they have been able to react in a timely manner on the
developments that took place.
Secondly –like the cultural sector—libraries have always suffered from budget limitations and
therefore have been forced to make choices.
Libraries have also decided quite early to consider information technology as a strategic goal,
rather than just a support tool for administrative purposes.
It is also clear that libraries have been able to adapt to the new situation and profit from the
efforts they made in earlier days. Thanks to the card and online catalogues –or metadata—the
wealth of information stored in libraries became and remained visible to individuals and
organizations.
Relevance for the cultural sector
So why is this library experience relevant for the cultural sector, or how could you profit from it?
First of all I believe you should consider the challenges as opportunities, rather than as threats.
Todays theme is “Culture and Online Information” and I believe you should grab this opportunity
to include information technology as a strategic goal.
Secondly: the library experience demonstrates that cooperation and organization are crucial
when you wish to participate in the digital information era.
And thirdly: when you create online information (such as websites or pdf files) allow for time and
manpower to add metadata to it. This will increase the visibility of the resources.
11
The infinite library http://www.techreview.com/articles/05/05issue
DON FORESTA (Conférencier)
Researcher artist / Théoricien de l’art multimédia
Né à Buffalo, New York, Don Foresta obtient un "BA" en Histoire des USA à l'Université de Buffalo.
En 1971, il obtient un "Master's Degree" à Johns Hopkins, School of Advanced International Studies.
Il a obtenu un Doctorat en Sciences de l'Information à l'Université de Paris II (Sorbonne-Panthéon),
mention très honorable. Foresta est naturalisé français depuis 1996.
Il créé en 1976 le département d'art vidéo à l'Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs et il est
actuellement un des coordinateurs d'un programme multimédia interactif à l'Ecole Nationale
Supérieure d'Arts à Cergy. Il est aussi Senior Research Fellow à Londres au Wimbledon School of
Art.
Le travail de Don Foresta est fondé sur l'utilisation artistique des systèmes de communication. Cette
recherche artistique et philosophique s'exprime dans de nombreuses œuvres, ainsi que dans ses
écrits et ses réalisations. Les principes philosophiques présidant à ces processus sont synthétisés
dans son livre "Mondes Multiples".
Ses recherches ont commencé par un échange d'images envoyées par le procédé slowscan entre le
Center for Advanced Visual Studies du MIT à Boston et le Centre Américain à Paris, en 1981. Ce
projet a été suivi par plusieurs autres réalisations depuis les années 80, notamment celle présentée la
Biennale de Paris, et décrite par Alain Fleischer dans le Monde Diplomatique:
Don Foresta s'est particulièrement intéressé à la communication multimédia et aux réseaux: à la
Biennale de Paris de 1982, il organise les échanges d'images électroniques par téléphone entre
artistes français et américains par le procédé du slowscan, qui fait aujourd'hui figure de prototype
historique."
Don Foresta a aussi fait partie de nombreuses productions télévisuelles internationales, artistiques et
éducatives; été commissaire à la Biennale de Venise en 1986, créé le premier laboratoire interactif
informatique mettant en place un réseau international de communication entre plusieurs artistes
créant ensemble. Faisant appel à plusieurs artistes, il crée aussi avec Georges-Albert Kisfaludi en
1988 "Artistes en Réseau", réseau informatique de recherche dans le domaine de la communication et
des créations interactives entre artistes-chercheurs, centres de création et écoles d'art. Il travaille
aujourd'hui à la mise-en place d'un même réseau artistique, permanent et international haut débit
permettant une expérimentation en temps réel l'interactivité comme moyens d'expression artistique.
Ce réseau, MARCEL, http://www.mmmarcel.org, utilisant l'Internet 2 est opérationnel depuis quatre
ans entre dix-sept pays principalement en l'Amérique du Nord et l'Europe.
En 1988, en collaboration avec deux artistes américains Kit Galloway et Sherrie Rabinowitz, il met en
place le Café Electronique International, projet artistique offrant au public des possibilités de
communication, permettant une participation à des événements artistiques et une confrontation
culturelle via le réseau, entre intervenants de différents pays. Le Café était présent à la 9ème
Documenta en 1992, à la 49ème Biennale de Venise en 1993 et à la Biennale de Lyon en 1996.
Foresta a été artiste invité au Studio National des Arts Contemporains, Le Fresnoy, où il construit un
laboratoire interactif et un site de gestion du réseau artistique, le debut de MARCEL, réseau et site
web.
Don Foresta a été nommé Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres en 1986. Egalement "Fellow"
(artiste en résidence) à MIT, il a été conférencier et artiste invité dans plusieurs universités
américaines, japonaises et européennes et expert auprès du Conseil de Europe dans le domaine de
la création artistique et des réseaux de communication.
Recherche présentée :
“The New Renaissance - an Interactive Paradigm”
For over a century art and science have been defining a new space for western society, a space which
contains the organisational schema of our universe, replacing the clock-work mechanism of the
mechanical universe. It is a visual space, a communication space, an organisational space, a
philosophical space, a psychological space, the space of our imagination where reality and our
interaction with it are seen and defined. This space has been proposed by artists, defined by science
and made habitable by artists again as it is integrated into our cultural consciousness. The process – a
new renaissance in the profoundness of its rapture with the past in how we understand and represent
reality - is not complete. It will not be for another fifty years, but we have become conscious of it and
are, therefore, capable of accelerating and directing it toward new ways of seeing and knowing.
The space will function in time. It will not be a fixed static space but one whose evolution will be part of
its definition. It will be interactive containing multiple points of view - the observer as actor, actor as
observer. Our cultural reality will be found in the collection and communication of those several points
of view. The space-time geometry of this space is becoming clearer and will eventually replace the
Euclidean geometry of the first renaissance in our imagination.
Every mode of communication has at one of its extremes a form of expression we call art. Art, being
the densest form of communication, is often the supreme test of any means of communication. Each
work of art contains the entire worldview of the artist and, as such, demands of any means of
expression the dimensions necessary to fulfil that need. Art is the means by which we test a
communication system, and by doing so, the reality it attempts to portray.
A synthesis of the new digital technologies of real-time imaging, computation and telecommunications
are providing a model of that space, permitting a full exploration of its potential. Some uses of those
technologies can therefore express the values that we are attempting to define as we reinvent our
society according to the new artistic and scientific givens of the last one hundred years.
The flux of civilisation produces the ideas that produce the tools for the realisation of the ideas. In the
use of those tools we can see the organisational patterns that are becoming the institutional
expression of our future society. The interactive network is new the metaphor of our civilisation
and its geometry the geometry of our imagination – the paradigm of the new renaissance.
Article publié : (text written for “eCulture : the European perspective Cultural policy-Knowledge
industries-Information lag” 24-27 April 2003, Zagreb, Croatia)
The New Space of Communication, the Interface with Culture and Artistic Creativity
by Don Foresta, Alain Mergier and Bernhard Serexhe
…Information Society : Towards another "Brave New World"?
Today, we are witnessing the rapid installation of the complex systems which will become the
technological and commercial foundations of a "global information infrastructure". This new,
interactive communication space will doubtlessly function as a powerful tool in the service of the
economy, but it will also be at the centre of radical and far-reaching changes in our societies.
From this point of view, the simple admiration of what are merely technical advances, coupled
with present-day justifications of a primarily economic nature, presents serious risks of prevailing
over the higher interests of the cultural life and the social functioning of the peoples of Europe.
Among the undeniable responsibilities of public authorities are to protect essential community
functions against possible encroachments, and to promote the enormous potential of these new
technologies for the cultural and social development of all our societies…..
…..Present-day monopolistic trends in the future multimedia market
The observation of the world's financial markets shows transactions of vital importance in all
sectors of the cultural industries. Economic experts already predict a planetary market of several
thousand billion dollars by the year 2000. For the first time in human history, the cultural sector
which, by its nature, is not preoccupied by the race for raw materials, is promising profit earning
capacities which will exceed those of the traditional material-based industries.
The market is developing exponentially and is marked by the cut-throat competition between
strategic alliances and mass buyers at the centre of a rapid convergence of three previously
separate sectors audio-visual, computer technology and telecommunications. The situation
today is already characterised by a very small number of world-wide corporations, all impatient
to reap profits from their huge investments by setting up the technical, legal and commercial
norms best suited to their own involvement in this future world market.
At the same time, in the movement towards the creation of ever more powerful trusts, these
same groups manage to take advantage of the discrepancies between national legal
frameworks. For several years now, a handful of giants in the computer and communication
world have already acquired a status of "global players", dominating the activities of the other,
weaker competitors in the market. The absence of international law in this field, coupled with the
scale of financial investment necessary, encourages this tendency towards concentration.
In view of the imminent liberalisation and probable homogenisation of this world market, it is
impossible not to see that the main objective pursued by these cultural industries is nothing
other than the most profitable exploitation of their audio-visual products and future on-line
services. The recommendations of the main representatives of the cultural industries of Europe,
Japan and the United States at the February 1995 G7 conference, held in Brussels, already
gave clear warning of this single minded interest. Alongside the demands for a speed-up in the
de-regulation of the markets, and the conclusion of agreements as to certain technical norms,
much concern was also expressed as to the public's confidence in this information society.
Without this confidence, 2 according to these recommendations, the extraordinary gains to be
won from the information revolution could not be completely realised….
..Promoted then by an essentially economic discourse, the result of this crusade on a world-wide
scale will be the undermining of all sorts of social and ethical norms and the rapid evolution
towards a new society, already baptised the "information society".
Although today no one can yet measure the scope of the impact of new technologies on cultural
life and the on functioning of our societies nor predict the physiognomy of this "information
society", by making us accept its purely technical logic, the promises associated with this illusory
vision already outline its marvellous advantages: the creation of tens of millions of new jobs by
the year 2000, the availability of an educational tool of tremendous significance, a more
democratic society, the perspective of free access to information by anyone and everyone, both
as consumers and producers, and, last of all, the imminent arrival of a better standard of living
for Europe, Japan, the United States and subsequently - to quote the industry's own
recommendations for the G7 Brussels conference - for "the other regions of the world"…..
Defining the New Communications Space
In order to define this new communications space in the way most amenable to society and its
members, it is important to think of it with the following qualifications:
1. Easily accessible:
technically - not limited to specialists, a closed club of initiates, mystifying the general public
through technological slight of hand,
financially - not limited only to those who can pay, or to distorted systems whereby the wealthest
multinationals pay less than educational or cultural institutions because of the weight of their
business,
intellectually - not limited to a priviledged few where information becomes a guarded commodity
available only through rank or riches.
2. Genuinely interactive (with no political or economic intermediaries):
between individuals
between individuals and groups
between groups
between individuals and institutions
between institutions
3. Genuinely diverse: avoiding reducing all models of culture and comportment to a few social,
cultural and political sterotypes answering other political or economic agendas.
4. Related to contemporary culture and not a substitute for it: allowing new forms to emerge
from the interface of contemporary culture and the new space. To be avoided is the deforming
process of fitting contemporary or traditional culture to the new space. Artistic creation with the
new tools must be encouraged to permit the new space to be defined by that creativity in order
to discover the specificity of its language and the depth of its communication potential.
5. Relevant to education and accessible to it: again investigation is necessary to find how to
apply the tool to education not just as access to information, but as a series of interactive,
international connections permitting the development of culture from the point of view of the
individual, defining and deriving his culture from the extensive pool of information and contacts
around him. The new space is not an extension of the classroom but a different space with an
educational vocation to be discovered and developed through experimentation. Part of the
challenge will be to not confuse entertainment with education and to assure intellectual depth
and to avoid creating one more media playground.
6. Experimental: open to new ideas, procedures, processes and uses, determined by their
cultural, social or political utility, not just by their commercial return. The key word is again depth.
…….Identities and cultural expressions
From whatever viewpoint, a fair appraisal of the reality of the European situation must respect
the extraordinary cultural richness of the countries of Europe as the product both of an ancient
and shared historical evolution and of an extraordinarily large range of regional traditions. The
essential characteristic of this shared culture is its spirit of openness. There is no doubt that
European culture has profited from the selection, the interpretation and then the assimilation of 3
external and older cultural evolutions, which are impossible today to dissociate from its own
specific identity. Generally, this appropriation was the result of acts of conquest which led to
domination and even the suppression of other cultures. But, by the same token, other cultures
have evolved thanks to the intense enrichment brought to them by European cultural values.
Conscious of the composite and fragile nature of its own cultural identity, Europe must today
show exemplary responsibility where its own cultural heritage is concerned, and with regards to
its present-day and future cultural life. This responsibility must involve a greater sensitivity in its
contacts with other cultures. Inescapably bound up in permanent exchanges with other evolving
cultures, the dynamics of European culture could only be impoverished and compromised by
misguided protectionism.
Yet, at the same time, faced with the enormous initiatives launched by the United States and by
Japan, we also feel deep concern, and justifiably so, where the preservation of cultural
expressions and identities in Europe is concerned. Waiting for the wave of multimedia products
to unfurl, products of more or less limited value, designed, fabricated and homogenised to be
easily sold on the world market, this concern anticipates the threat of a profound upheaval in the
European media landscape; thanks to the powerful instrument which the information highways
represent, this landscape could be submerged by an ocean of images of which only the smallest
proportion has any redeeming artistic content.
The specific interest of European heritage in multimedia creation
Today, in the multimedia world, European backwardness, compared to the United States and
Japan, is often bemoaned. But the main question here should not be the preoccupations of
European industries, unable to profit fully from the vast potential of a future market. Everywhere
in Europe the traditional cultural sectors are threatened by budgetary cuts, while at the same
time there is a scramble to invest in the multimedia sector, in order to stand up against the
gigantic economic investments of the Americans and the Japanese.
By its deep roots, its enormous diversity and its extraordinary richness, the European heritage
constitutes the main cultural treasure which, on the world scene, is at the centre of the specific
interest of the multimedia industry. The new interactive communication space will enlarge our
horizons: but the price to pay for this incredible mass of ever up-dated information, may also be
a loss, a loss difficult to appreciate, in the direct and sensorial contact between ourselves and
reality. The rapid evolution of the global multimedia market, pushing the traditional arts and
media into the background, may compromise the values and contents of the European heritage,
levelling them down to a lowest common denominator. In the long term, the result of this
globalisation may be an irreversible loss of the European cultural identity.
As the information revolution accelerates, calling on ever-greater financial investments, only a
vast intensification of the creative approach, throughout Europe, can succeed in
counterbalancing a total commercialisation of the cultural sector. Yet the creative participation of
all the cultural actors can only be initiated by a cultural policy directed in common at the
European level. And the European multimedia industry, by accepting a larger share of
responsibility for multimedia artistic creation, can only profit from this engagement in its own
field.
Mobilisation of the cultural actors of Europe
If the public authorities of Europe leave the field open to the economic interests of the "global
players" in the vital sectors of information and communication, they must also accept
responsibility, in order to preserve the cultural identity and expression of our societies, for
establishing norms not merely for the inoffensive use of the new technologies, but, even more,
for these uses to be beneficial. In order to avoid an irreversible impoverishment of European
culture, the control of content and of its communication cannot be left to the sole ambitions of
the industrial and commercial parties.
Without encouraging alarmist Euro-scepticism, the guarantee of a better promotion of the
enormous potential of new technologies for the cultural and social life of all our societies can
only be realised through a concerted harmonisation of cultural and economic policies, taking into
account and respecting the cultural richness and diversities of all the societies in Europe and
encouraging the creative participation of all its cultural actors.
This necessary mobilisation of creative resources could be based on a growing number of
initiatives in the artistic domain. In anticipation of the promising results to be expected from the
association of art and new technology, research centres and centres of artistic experimentation
have been in existence for a long time now in art schools throughout Europe. For several years,
there have been exhibitions and festivals in this same field. Along with these initiatives, which
are often of an institutional nature and which denote a growing acceptance of these new media
by the concerned public, we also see the emergence of a large number of "private" cultural
initiatives in the field of electronic networks such as Internet.
The aim of these initiatives is the study of specific techniques and the realisation and
presentation of total multimedia works of art. They aim to promote innovations and also to
criticise blind enthusiasm for the new communication technologies. In order to preserve the
identity and the cultural diversity of Europe and bring new life to it, it is precisely in this direction
that the concerted efforts of the cultural and economic policies in Europe should be oriented.
Development : Evolution of an Interface, Art and Technologie
…..Instead of allowing this slide into consumerism, Internet affords us an excellent experimental
space to tests ideas permitting this new form of interactivity to find its potential and become a
genuine tool in the long-term evolution of European culture. Various forms of cooperation
between industry, the arts and sciences and the public can and must be found to permit the
maximum amount of technical innovation and cultural invention. This is research and
development at its highest level since we are talking about much more than technology, more
than commerce, but also about the interaction of the two with culture in its broadest sense. This
is the future of our relationship with the knowledge of our times - our way of knowing, with each
other as individuals and as members of society - social intercourse, with the future of artistic
creativity - Culture with a captial "C", with the models of comportment and the multiple identities
which will be part of the future spectrum of European identity, culture with a small "c". Briefly,
this is the future of an important part of what will be the institutions of tomorrow's Europe….
Publications :
Don Foresta, Alain Mergier, Bernard Serexhe, , Le Nouvel Espace de Communication, Interface
avec la culture et la creativité artistique, Etude réalisée pour le Conseil d'Europe ,September 1995
Don Foresta, Alain Mergier; Artists en Réseau: Un Art de la préfiguration, Revue d’Esthetique, 1994
STÉPHANE NATKIN (Conférencier)
Professeur universitaire, chercheur et expert
Stéphane Natkin est professeur des universités au
département STIC du Conservatoire National des
Arts et Métiers (CNAM), directeur l’Ecole Nationale
du Jeu et des Médias Interactifs Numériques
(ENJMIN) (http://www.enjmin.fr), .membre élu du
conseil de perfectionnement du CNAM, responsable
de l’équipe de recherche RSM (Réseau Système et
Multimédia) du laboratoire de recherche en
informatique
du
CNAM
(CEDRIC)
(http://cedric.cnam.fr/) et ancien directeur du
laboratoire,responsable du Master multimédia,
responsable pédagogique du Master Jeux vidéo et
Média interactifs,
Outre sa carrière d'enseignant universitaire en
informatique (jeux vidéo, multimédia, sécurité et
sûreté de fonctionnement, réseaux, systèmes
répartis…), il travaille comme chercheur et expert et
est l'auteur de nombreuses publications dans ces
domaines.
Il a été le directeur de la Galerie Natkin-Berta, galerie
d'art contemporain présentant des travaux d'art
plastique d'art vidéo et des installations d'art
numérique. Il a également été le fondateur de la
société
CESIR
intégrée
dans
le
groupe
Communication and Systems (CS) chargée du
développement des logiciels de sécurité.
Il est un des producteurs et co-auteur du livre "Sol
LeWitt Black Gouaches" et l'auteur des livre "Les
protocoles de sécurité de l'Internet" (DUNOD, 2002),
"Les jeux vidéo et des média du XXI siècle", (Vuibert,
2004)
Stéphane Natkin received the Engineer and
Doctor Engineer degree from the Conservatoire
National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM), Paris, in
1978 and 1980 respectively, and the Doctor es
sciences degree from the university of Paris VI in
1985. He is professor in the department of
Computer Science, the Director of Computer
Research Laboratory CEDRIC and a member of
the administration board at the CNAM. He
teaches computer networks, distributed and
multimedia systems, computer safety and
security. He is in charge of a postgraduate degree
on video games and he works as one of the
founder of the French National School on Games
and Interactive Media, which will open in
September 2004. He has worked during the last
twenty years in the field of critical computer
system both from the research and the industrial
point of view. He is the founder of a security
software editor CESIR and he was also the
manager of an art gallery situated in the center of
Paris which presented modern paintings,
sculpture and electronic art. He is the author of
the book "Internet Security Protocols", DUNOD
2001 and the producer and one of the designers
of the book "Sol Lewitt Black Gouaches".
([email protected])
Publications :
Stéphane NATKIN, Les jeux de demain : télévision ou cinéma interactif ? - Chapitre de livre, Mnémos,
2005. In: Le game design de jeux vidéo. Approches de l'expression vidéoludique
Stéphane NATKIN, Jeux Vidéo et Médias au XXI siècle , Vuibert, 2004.
Stéphane NATKIN , Jeux Vidéo: Le labyrinthe comme principe d'écriture, Chapitre de livre, RMN, 2003.
Catalogue de l'exposition Labyrinthes, Parc de Bagatelle, Paris, Juin 2003
Stéphane Natkin, Chen Yan, Analysis of Correspondences Between Real and Virtual Worlds in
General Public Applications, CGIV 05, Pékin, Chine, Juillet 2005
Stefan Grunvogel, Stéphane Natkin, Liliana Vega, A New Methodology for Spatiotemporal Game
Design, CGAIDE 2004, 2004. Reading, UK, Nov 2004,
Stéphane Natkin, Liliana Vega, A Petri Net Model for the Analysis of the Ordering of Actions in
Computer Games, GAME ON 2003, Londres, Octobre 2003
Stéphane Natkin , Computer games: A Paradigm for the of new Media and Arts in the XXI century,
Proceedings of the int Conference on Media History and Civilisation , Game, Yonsei University, Seoul,
Corée, Septembre 2003 and Game On, Londres, Octobre 2003
Article publié:
“COMPUTER GAMES: A PARADIGM FOR NEW MEDIA AND ARTS IN THE XXI CENTURY”
Stéphane Natkin
CEDRIC/CNAM
292 rue Saint Martin 75141- Paris Cedex 03 France
E-mail : [email protected]
KEYWORDS: Game, media, on line games, pervasive games, art, training
ABSTRACT
To try to foresee the XXI century media evolution, we consider one of the most mature fields, of
the interactive media domain: the computer game industry. We first make a short presentation of
the current practices in game design mainly focussed on one player games. From our point of
view, the game community has defined a new genre of audio visual contents. In the second
section we analyze Massively Multiplayer On Line Games and the evolution to persuasive (pro
active) games. This will open numerous windows on the media evolution leading both to naïve
dreams or psychotic nightmares. In the third section we present a post graduate training on
computer games which relies on the principles of cinema high schools. Another question is
opened by the conclusion: Is there any chance that computer games and more generally
interactive media will lead to a new form of artistic creation?
ONE PLAYER GAMES DESIGN
Introduction
From a cultural point of view, one of the main aspects of the last century is the development of
communication networks: telephone, radio, television. The consequences of this development
are tremendous. From an individual point of view, our uses of communications have completely
changed. From a worldwide point of view, the omnipresence of broadcast media and more
generally of mass media, is the crossed influences between culture and the predominance of
the US way of life. At the end of the century, the growth of the Internet Network suggests a new
communication revolution relying on interactive media. But, which type of sociological relations
and which type of new contents will be induced by interactive networks? Those are still widely
opened questions. The crash of the new economy shows that, between the design of a new
technology and the creation of new practices and cultural contents, there is a big gap: the
sociological maturation time.
To try to foresee this media evolution, we consider one of the most mature fields, in terms of
market, design practice, production process, of the interactive media domain: the computer
game industry. The computer game industry is the third field of the media industry (after TV and
CD+DVD). Due to the market size, the game industry generates efficient and low cost tools
which are used in other fields: images and sounds synthesis, network technology for
collaborative work, interactive writing, e-learning, artificial intelligence...
The goal of this section is not to provide a detailed analysis of the game industry, the game
development process or of the game design principles (see (Rollins, 2000),(Gal, 2002)). Its aim
is to show that, in contrast to the Web design principles, the game industry and the game
designers have some rather clear ideas on: what is a computer game, which public is aimed,
how to design a game and how to produce it. From our point of view, the game community has
defined a new genre of audio visual production even if one may consider that, up to know, there
are a few computer game masterpieces.
Writing for games
Writing for games is a rather difficult task. Of course it is an interactive composition and, as in
other fields of open work, the author must leave a controlled freedom to the player. But, in the
opposite of the art installation field or interactive music composition, marketing goals drives the
game industry. Game is mainly entertainment; hence, the player must solve non-trivial but not
too complex problems, leading to a succession of goals in a reasonable amount of time. The
player must feel in an open interactive work, but should be driven to the game solution. To solve
this paradox the game industry has invented several techniques derived from game theory and
object oriented specification. It is, up to now, mainly a practice. One may argue the low aesthetic
qualities of many commercial games. But, we think that these techniques are the source of a
new fundamental approach of interactive narration. A new theory, based on the understanding
of the game practices, must be developed. In the sequel, we point out four main aspects of the
game definition: immersion techniques, Game Design principles, Scenario and level design,
Gameplay.
The feeling of immersion is explicitly the main narrative goal of games. To increase the feeling of
immersion, the game design is a subtle mix of three domains. The two first ones are directly
related to linear storytelling and cinema: dramatic principles of scenario design (tension and
climax), qualities of the visual and sound universe. The last one inherits from classical games:
challenges of the gameplay. In multi-player games, a source of immersion is the challenge
between players, the design of which is more or less related to sport rules definition.
A game is first and foremost an imaginary universe. In the opposite of classical narration, the
universe can neither be revealed nor created through the linear statements of the story. Then
the first step of the game specification (Game Design) is to define the main aspects of this
universe: The context of the game, all the objects of the game from the topology of the world to
the virtual camera, including characters, materials, weather … The concept of object in the
game design must be understood as in object oriented specifications: it includes narrative
aspects (the past of the hero), perceptual features (graphics and sounds) and action that can be
produced by the object or which can modify the object. It will be directly translated in the game
programming. This method of construction, is, from a narrative point of view a revolution. For
example, in a film the music is associated with the image through the synchronous exposition of
the story. This relationship is materialized in the editing phase. There are no fundamental or
technical reasons to associate the same music to the same object. In the opposite the music in
a game is mainly associated with an object: a place, a character…Each time the player enter the
dark room of the castle, he gets the ghost’s music. Most of the design tools for games use this
object association principle.
There is an open discussion in the world of game design about scenario. The notion of scenario
comes from the movie world and is related in one hand to the idea of story telling and in the
other to a sequence (and time driven) of scenes. A game can not be only a scenario, as the
player must always be the main actor of the scene. The level design is the main step where the
scenario takes place. It induces a partially ordered set of actions that the player must perform to
end the level, defines the goals assigned to the player and limits the number of possible
effective actions of the player. Level design is the only constructive way to simulate, in a game,
a classical narrative construction scheme. But it can not be based on the time driven
presentation of media, playing with the memory and the emotion of the spectator through
passive perceptions. It must use the mix of immersion factors and rely not on time but on space
and logic constructions. A level of the game is a mix of a virtual space, a set of puzzle to be
solved in this space, the main actions to be done by the player to reach a given goal. Generally
the level is first defined by the geometry of the space: a given maze, a race circuit. Then the
level designer chooses the positions and actions associated with the objects in this level. To
keep the sensation of freedom, several solutions are used: first, a set of independent actions
can be performed in any order, in more complex games the player can pursue, in the same
space, several goals in parallel. There is an open research questions about scenario design:
how to keep and manage tension and climax mechanisms (Szinlas, 2001).
Gameplay is of course the immersive factor which makes game different than other media. But
the gameplay of computer games is generally very simple compared to the one of classical
games (go, chess, cards, Monopoly and even deck role playing games). Chess and Go rules
have taken several hundred of years of experiments to become stable. The life time of a
computer game is generally less than two years. Games designers do not have enough tuning
time to design complex rules. A game is perceived as complex or difficult because the player
does not know the rules and the computer can change these rules at any time. There are more
and more exceptions to the previous principle. First some strategic games have been
experimented through several versions during more than ten years (Sim City, Warcraft…). The
simulation which defines the game play rules is becoming really complex. Multi-players games
(Doom like or strategic games played in LAN arena) are played as sports in numerous and
worldwide championships. This allows a tuning and improvements of rules and team strategy.
Persistent on line games will change the nature of this problem (see next section).
MASSIVELY MULTI PLAYERS ON LINE GAMES
Even if the history of the Internet networks contents from its beginning some aspects of on line
games (MOD’s, textual version of Dungeons and Dragons was already available on the net in
the early eighties), the first real persistent on line universe are Meridian, EverQuest, Ultima
OnLine and Asheron’s Call. The first versions of these games were released in the late nineties.
Most of the games available on a commercial basis still rely on the same principles, even if
performances and interfaces have considerably evolved from the first versions of these games.
The main characteristics of these games are the following:
- A MMOG is a persistent world. Thousands of players share a huge virtual landscape including
villages, cities, with numerous non playing characters… So it is based on a Game Design,
according to the previous section definition: It is a virtual universe defined by the properties of its
objects.
- A MMOG is a shared virtual society which rules are initially defined by the game designers but
which evolves with the demand of player’s community. The rules allow to create and to manage
permanent or temporary grouping and include a trade system.
- The ability to create and to improve each player avatar, to develop social skills and to get a
recognized position in the game community is an essential feature of the gameplay.
- More generally, a MMOG is in constant evolution. It is necessary to revive interest of the
players, to cope with undesirable social behaviours, to correct bugs. The game provider
modifies periodically the game either in the universe (new version or patches to the game code)
or in the user (social) rules.
- Scenario, Goals, quest and levels, in the meaning of one player adventure or role playing
games, are anecdotal aspects of the game. The feeling of freedom in social relationships is the
main interest of the players.
- Player unpredictable uses of the game objects have to be forecasted and even encouraged, as
long as it does not put into danger the “correct” social structure of the community.
- Undesirable player behaviours must be constantly detected and corrected. The game provider
supply social rules and a police services (such as in Internet chats) bases on programmed
intelligent agents but also on human intervention.
- Negative social impacts of MMOG have been observed. When each night your avatar is a king
of a virtual universe and each day you are a second-rate employee in a big company, which part
of your life will become the main one?
- From an economical point of view, on line games can be seen more as a service or a
periodical publishing (newspaper, radio, Web site) than a product or a one shot publishing
(books, CD or DVD, classical games).
If the design and development of new generation MMOG and proactive games lay down several
unsolved design, scientific and technical problems (Natkin, 2003), it can be forecasted that
these problems will be solved in the next twenty years
Design methods for one player games are still in an emerging stage compared to the cultural
heritage of literature, drama and cinema. Hence, how to design MMOG is complex open
problem. The current practice relies on experimentations and the inventiveness of game design
teams. The development of a corpus in this field will need to cross our knowledge on
storytelling, game theory, one player game design but also sociology, economy and political
sciences.
Create and keep alive an always renewed huge virtual universe is a difficult task. A solution is to
define this universe not as an assembly of static data but as a probabilistic algorithm which can
generate an almost infinite number of outputs in real time. It is called the generative approach
(www.generative .net). Graphics (landscape, characters), but also scripted scenario, dialog,
behaviour of Non Player Characters (NPC), artificial life, sound and music can be created by
generative algorithms (Lecky, 2002). Numerous experiments in the artistic and simulation
domain have been experimented in the last twenty years. The game goal is to blend all these
ideas in a program which generates an “interesting and meaningful” virtual world. But MMOG
allows taking risky gamble in terms of design and technology. If something does not work, the
provider can roll back to a previous version of the game. Hence complex gameplay and Artificial
Intelligence technology, not in use for one player games, will probably be experimented on
MMOG.
The design of a computer architecture able to cope with all the constraint of real time MMOG
leads to solve some of the most difficult problems of distributed computing (Natkin, 2003),
(Smed, 2002). Players, accessing to the game all over the Internet, must see coherent states of
the game under strong real time constraints. This leads to investigate how to distribute the game
state over the network (semantic filtering, synchronous coherence) or to anticipate locally the
evolution of the game (dead reckoning). Intellectual properties protection and right management
in the virtual world leads also to difficult security challenges.
The viability of on line games economy is, as for all aspects of Internet services, far to be
determined. Eladhari (Eladhari, 2003) listed 51 operational and 140 MMOG in development. But
they are numerous indications which may think that the market is saturated (Carooe, 2002),
(Woodcock, 2003) and that many MMOG will disappear and many projects will be cancelled.
Most of the MMOG are designed for the same class of customers and share the same kind of
fantastic or science fiction universe. Most of these universes rely on a huge 3D landscape and
complex features, which induces high development costs. Much simpler On Line Games which
offer the same level complexity of social gameplay, with a simpler interface can be found for free
or at lower price on the net. Managing the computer infrastructure to allow several hundred of
players to be simultaneously connected is also very expensive. Some study shows that
generally the game universe and the group of peoples which meets together are split in smaller
parts (INT, 2002).
What are the main economic actors of this field is still an open question. Telecommunication
operators will probably take a part of the market, with low service prices as they sell the
communication bandwidth. This is true in particular for games that can be played on cellular
phones (see next sections). Cinema and TV producer are trying to use worldwide movie
licenses to be the leader of the MMOG market (Star War for example). Game Publishers and
even studio (Lejade, 2002) hope that MMOG is a chance to get out of the current structure of
the game market (leadership of retailers and console manufacturers against all the others,
leadership of publisher against independent studios), but it is not sure that they will have the
business capacities to take this chance.
Those pessimistic features take into account the current production. When the current technical,
design and social gaps will be filled, the next generation of on line games will offer virtual
environments for almost everybody. MMOG are the premises of pro active games and of the
new generation of interactive media. More generally one who can built a game for one million
gamers is able to built a virtual school for one million students, an efficient cooperative work
environment (Constantini, 2001) and a distributed concert with one million players and auditors
(Bouillot, 2002)…
NEXT GENERATION GAMES
The unified cross media platform
The next generation game relies on the cross media uniform platform. The principle is rather
simple: the user may interact with the same interactive media environment using all possible
devices: home cinema, computers, interactive TV sets, PDA, mobile phone… The media
interface will be automatically adapted to the device. A rather simple (and poor) vision of this
platform is the automatic transformation of a web page from a computer interface to a mobile
phone one. A much more advanced understanding of the unified platform can be forecast in
terms of possible contents and in particular the next generation of games. Figure 2 presents a
possible architecture for this new generation of games (Natkin, 2003). The most advance
feature of the uniform platform is the ability to mix broadcast passive media and active media in
a unified one.
Network
Network
protocols
Data Synchronization
Game Consistency and
synchronization protocol
Semantic filtering
Game Scene
(Virtual representation)
Game
execution
Pro active games
To understand the potential of proactive games we will describe some possible applications. A
proactive game must first be thought as a relationship between two universes: the “real
universe” and a “virtual universe”. The quality of the game is mainly defined by the intermingling
of these universes. Assume, for example, that, as in Half Life or in every day news, a group of
terrorists is trying to cause a great disaster. At a given time of the reality or the game, the player
may be unable (or does not want) to know if the terrorists are real or virtual, if he is a passive
spectator or a possible hero…
Our practice of information shows that we are already playing such games. Generally, we get
information from mass media more as a show than as an objective analysis of facts. The
difference between a movie/TV and games is the position of the spectator/player. If you can
switch from CNN to VCNN (Virtual CNN), if a call on your mobile or a mail on your computer can
be issued either by a friend, which knows you as Stephane Natkin professor, or a NPC which
knows you as 007, you are in a proactive game. In the virtual universe 007 can save the planet
with the help of the player’s community. In the real world Stephane Natkin can write papers on
computer sciences and the evolution of interactive media.
There are unlimited possibilities for pro active games. On line tamagoshi (virtual pets or babies)
are already in services. One can offer you a virtual family which will be much more attentive than
the real one. They will never forget your anniversary, and will automatically answer to your
loving mails. At a given time you may be unable to know if your virtual children are NPC
generated by an AI program or the avatar of other players.
From a more formal point of view, we can define pro active game by the following properties:
- A pro active game has almost all the properties of MMOG, with the exception of the community
size (which may be smaller) and the interface (which is generally not a 3D heroic fantasy world).
- The interaction between the virtual universe and the player are can not be formally
distinguished from the interactions between the real world and the player through broadcast
(radio, TV, Web even newspapers) and active media (phone, mail, videoconferences…)
- Many pro active games will not be anymore games, as the feeling of winning or loosing the
game will be as uncertain than in the real world (It is already the case for many MMOG)
The examples given previously lead to a nightmarish vision of the future. One may think to much
more positive applications. A pro active game can be seen as an extension of augmented reality
systems: the virtual world can provide practical or emotional help to people. It can be the basis
of new social relationship (INT,2002), (Mayra, 2001) and the kernel of worldwide social
exchanges. It is also, potentially, the ability to develop new art forms.
TRAINING IN COMPUTER GAMES
As a consequence of the previous sections, we think that computer game is one of the main key
domains of the XXIth society, both from social, economical and creative point of view. So it is
essential to develop high level training on all the aspects of game design and development.
The DESS (Diplôme d’Etude Supérieur de Spécialité) JVMI “Video Games and Interactive
Media” is a unique European high level (post graduate) formation to the video game professions
(deptinfo.cnam.fr/Enseignement/DESSJEUX/). It is the result of the collaboration between six
institutions: La Rochelle and Poitiers universities, CNAM, IRCAM, CNBDI and CNAM Poitou
Charentes. The DESS JVMI is a one year formation opened to students with a master degree
or a bachelor degree and five years of professional experience in one of the field of Audiovisual,
Visual Arts, Sound and Music Design, Computer Science, Psycho-perception and Cognition.
They are selected for their background, their creativity and their passion for video games. The
structure of the education is highly inspired from Cinema high school in cinema creation
(FEMIS,INSAS, NYFA, Lodz Film School …). The two main goals of this training are:
- To train people to a multidisciplinary work in team of production according to the processes
and the technologies of the game industry
- To complete each student’s technical knowledge in his/her/its original discipline (story telling,
audiovisuals, computer graphics, sound and music design, computer engineering) by the
concept, methods and tools used the design and realization of the computer games.
Students are accepted in one of five specialties: Game Design and Project Management,
Computer Graphics, Sound Design, Programming, Ergonomics) according to the following table.
Students initial domain
of formation or
experience
Scenario and scripting
(audiovisual), literature,
information and
communication…
Computer Science
Music, Sound
Engineering, Sound in
audiovisuals…
With some knowledge on
audio numeric
Arts, Graphics,
Animation, Cinema,
photography…
with some knowledge on
computer graphics
Ergonomic, Psychology,
Cognition
All previous backgrounds
and a good knowledge on
economy, accounting and
marketing
Profession in the video
Game industry aimed
JVMI Specialty
Game Design, Level Design
Game Design and
Process management
Programmers (basic engine,
AI, graphic, sound, physics,
network…)
Sound Designer, Composer
Programming
Artist, animators,
Computer Graphics
Interface Design, Game
Evaluation and Testing,
Project Manager, Editor
Ergonomic and Man
Machine Interface
Game Design and
Process management
Sound Design
This formation relies on courses, conferences, projects that allow students to:
- Discover the world of the video games: history, vocabulary, economy, methods and
production processes
- Know the bases of the profession of the other intervening parties in the conception of a
game to be able to work together: for example to teach the bases of the programming or
the synthesis of picture to a sound engineer
- Learn, by domain of specialty, the methods and the technologies used today and those of
tomorrow in the realization of the video games
- Achieve and to document in team of production (5 to 8 students of all specialties) a game
pre production. The documentation includes the game design, the graphic and sound
design, the interface, the software architecture, the validation plan, the planning, and the
costs of production evaluation. A prototype of the game is realized industrial design tools
for games (Renderware/Virtools, 3DS Max, Direct Music Producer, Protools, Direct X...).
- To practice his future profession in the setting of an enterprise of the domain (Practicum
of 4 to 6 months)
Course are given both by academics and professionals (60% of interventions).
At the end of the year the students gets a national level degree.
The DESS will be included in the European School of Games and Interactive Media
announced by the French Prime Minister in May 2003. This school will open in June 2004.
The program of the DESS will be spread over two year, allowing the students to spend
eight months on their projects which will become a real game pre production. The school
will include fundamental research training for students who want to make a thesis. This
evolution is needed to have the same level and means than the one available in high level
film schools. In particular the school will be able to invite international games professionals
and researchers as lecturers.
CONCLUSION
Computer games seem to be the more advanced field of interactive media. In the opposite
of Web sites, a game is a well define work for a given public. This allows the game
community to define rather precise methods of design and production, to create a cultural
background and a memory of its main pieces. Even if game culture is still far from older
media, the ability to create game played all over the world is the proof of a young maturity.
The future of games, through MMOG and proactive games, is a paradigm for the
development on the On Line Interactive Media.
Will some game be considered as art pieces and will a game art appear? There are
numerous opposite answers to this question. They are already several artists who have
design works based on game technology (Genvo, 2003), but these works are generally “art
about games” than game art, in the same meaning than many pieces of Nam June Paik are
more art works which subjects are the television and video media. One may argue that
broadcast media (telephone, TV, radio) produced a few art pieces…If we consider On Line
Games are the future of broadcast media, the chance to see the birth of a game art seems
to be small. But if we think about game as an evolution of cinema, the ability to create art
games and to revive the contents of games depends on the emergence of authors games.
Authors movies are a small market, but it is the main genre in which the cinema renew its
inspiration. The birth of author games relies on the birth of alternate production systems,
government helps and the appearance of a new generation of game designers with
provocative ideas.
46
REFERENCES
N. Bouillot, 2002, “Métaphore de l'Orchestre Virtuel, Etude des contraintes Système et Réseaux puis
prototypage”, Rapport de Stage DEA SIR, CNAM, Paris.
B. Caroee, 2002, “The Watherhaed.org MMOG Bible: Casualties”, http://www. Watherhead.org/ news
F. Constantini; C. Toinard; N. Chevassus and F. Gaillard, 2001, “Collaborative design using distributed
virtual reality over the Internet”, In Proceedings SPIE Internet Imaging.
A. Cronin; B. Filstrup and A. Kurc, 2001, “A Distributed Multiplayer Game Server System”, Ann Arbor
University
M.
Eladhri,
2003,”Trends
art_trends_in_mmog.asp
in
MMOG
developments”,
http://game-research.com/
Viviane Gal ; Cécile. Le Prado ; Stéphane. Natkin; Liliana. Vega, 2002,"Writing for video games", VRIC
02, Laval
S. Genvo, 2003, Introduction aux enjeux artistiques et culturels des jeux video, L’Harmattan Ed, Paris
E. Guardiola, 2000, Ecrire pour le jeu, Ed Dixit, Paris, 2000
INT, 2002, Journées d’études Internet jeu et socialisation, Groupes des écoles de télécommunication, Paris
December, 2002
G. W. Lecky-Thompson,2002, “Infinite Universe : Level Design, Terrain and Sound”, Advance in
Computer Graphics and Game Development, Charles River Media Ed.
O. Lejade, 2002,”Le business model des jeux massivement multi joueurs et l'avenir des communautés on
line,”, Communication aux emagiciens, Valenciennes.
(F. Mayra; A. Jarvine and S. Hellio, 2002,”Communication and community in Digital Entertainment
Services”, Research report, University of Tempere, Hypermedia laboratory, Finland, August 2002.
S. Natkin, 2003,”Une architecture pour jouer à un million de joueurs”, Les Cahiers du Numérique,
Paris 2003
N. Richard ; P. Codogne and A. Grumbach ,2003, "Créatures virtuelles" , Revue Technique et Science
Informatiques (TSI), numéro spécial "Vie artificielle". Hermès,
A. Rollins and D. Morris, 2000, “Game Architecture and Design”, Coriolis Ed. Scottsdale
J. Smed; T Kaukoranta and H. Hakonen, 2002, “Aspects of Networking and Multiplayers Computer
Games”, Turku University, Finland,2002
N. Szilas, 2001, A” new approach for interactive drama: : From intelligent Chracters to an intelligent
virtual Narrator”, Proc of the spring symposiume on artificial intelligence and Interactive Entertainment,
Stanford CA, AAAI Press
B.S. Woodcock, 2003, An analysis of MMOG Subscription Growth,
http://pw1.netcom.com/~sibruce/Subscription.html
47
MYRIAM DIOCARETZ (Conférencier)
Senior Researcher, European Centre for Digital Communication Communication/Infonomics/ The
Netherlands
At ECDC she established the Digital Culture research unit, and has led international,
multidisciplinary projects on ICT & communication, interactive interfaces, e-publishing &
prototyping, education & the cultural industries, and created "The Global E-Quality Network" Her
current work centers on designing e-publishing services, and her research on
conceptual/analytical frameworks in the Information Society, interactivity, gender, digital content.
Since 2003 she is an Honorary Fellow of the United Nations University–Institute for New
Technologies. She earned a Ph.D. in Comparative Studies from the State University of New York,
and an M.A. from Stanford University; she also holds the degrees of Licenciada en Letras and
Profesora de Ingles from the University of Concepción, Chile. A Visiting Scholar in Discourse
Studies at the University of Amsterdam (1989-1992) and Scientific Research Scholar at the
University of Utrecht, she lectures frequently in Europe and the USA.
Before joining Infonomics, Myriam was Worldwide Training Manager at MCIWorldCom,
Worldwide Service Operations, Washington D.C/ WorldCentre Amsterdam (WCA), in Education &
Development for Global product migration, integration & implementation in Europe, creating
curricula on VPN, Global Voice, Internet, data network services. Earlier she had worked as
Training Co-coordinator at Stream International Europe, Amsterdam, on technical support for
software publishers & Internet service providers, desktop productivity software, operating
systems.
Myriam has over ten years of first-hand experience in all production stages of publishing, &
editing in English, French & Spanish, as Publishing Consultant and copyright/e-rights agent. She
has created content for websites and has worked further on web visibility, communication and
search engine strategies. Her publications include twenty-five essays on gender, and several
books on critical theory, the semiotics of culture, discourse strategies...
Developed research:
“The Culture of Interactivity in the Information Society Technological Imaginary”
Myriam Diocaretz, ECDC/Infonomics, The Netherlands
The mediating role of the new technologies in the Information Society (IS) comes under scrutiny
as a spectrum of signifying zones that transgress many traditional domains. For a closer view of
the conditions and contexts of the implementation, production, and uses of Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) it is useful to look into the interplay between technological
and cultural transformations. In the last ten years, the communication paradigm has been stirred
by a threefold technical deployment and cultural relational environment: the human-to-human
that precedes the digital practices, the human-to-machine interaction, and the machine-tomachine actions that become increasingly pervasive, through intelligent agency. Interactivity is
not a new term, but it re-entered the social discourses of the digital age in the 1980s, and since
then it has been a focus of attention not only in new media studies, social communication,
software design, artistic production, but also in EU prospective visions, technology innovation and
development frameworks. I will examine a segment of the trajectory of the transformative
changes which implicitly or explicitly “interactivity” has received as part of the technological
imaginary of the Information Society. Through a cultural critique that contextualizes specific
synchronic practices within the social discourses of quasi-policy (a USA recommendations report)
and policy-oriented EU scenarios for the future, I will pursue the itinerary of the interactive in
relation to the social construction of the user; likewise, I will show that while the vision of “IST
today” is already seen as limited and on its way to conclusion, the transformative alternative
vision of “Ambient Intelligence Tomorrow” stresses the human-to human interaction, therefore
returns to it yet in a new context of post-PC mode of existence in daily life.
48
Article publié:
Number IV, 2003 / http://www.unimaas.nl/publicatie/2003/pub4/scientific_publications.htm:
“Scientific Publications in the Knowledge Age: Some Notes on Access & Impact
from a Researcher's Desk”
The emergence of the Internet and its resulting “Digital Revolution” has produced a multifactorial phenomenon of economic, socio-cultural consequences that have also involved
academics in concrete domains. The scientific, scholarly sector plays a major function in
the communication of digital content and the exchange of knowledge. If we just think of the
Human Genome Project as a recent example, it is evident that the influence of high quality
research is not confined to higher education institutional boundaries. Scientists and
scholars1 often carry out a variety of functions of high responsibility extending beyond the
academic community, as advisors to governments and industry, as experts in decisionmaking panels and regulatory hemicycles, in ethical, educational, financial, legal councils,
or boards of community interest, and civil society, to name just a few. Academic research
output fulfils a key role towards achievement in humanistic inquiry and in the advancement
of scientific knowledge, as the legacy to be shared with the world. In this sense,
publications of primary original research endorsed by quality control mechanisms are relied
upon by governments, organisations, constituencies, civil society; in short, society at large.
In the present article, attention will be paid to the effects of the “Digital Revolution” upon
scholarly publications, from a context of access as one of the key accessibility factors,
especially in relation to academic impact from the author/scholar’s perspectives.12[i]
While issues about standards, technologies, and new initiatives are relevant to all kinds of
electronic cultural production, in the last three years the specific characteristics of epublishing have started to materialize as they apply to original scientific research results.
Many actions such as symposia, initiatives to boycott certain publishers, new types of
software developments have been evolving with continuity and in progression. As we shall
see in the conclusion of this article, in October 2003 much is happening simultaneously or
“in clusters”; these events, some of which have taken a number of years to gain solidity, are
unfolding in a way that the changes are more fast-moving and gripping, and even
suspenseful.
Communications channels for scientific research through the Internet in the new millennium
are developing increasingly both within and through closed and open networked
environments;13[ii]such a combination often leads to obstacles caused by technical or
human limitations, thus, breaking up the ideal “seamless” flow. At national levels leading
initiatives are orientated towards interconnections amongst hundreds of institutions. The
USA Internet2’s14[iii] primary objectives are to "create a leading edge network capability for
the [national] research community; to enable revolutionary applications, and to ensure the
rapid transfer of new network services and applications to the broader Internet community."
Internet2 is not limited to North America, since many Latin American universities are also
being connected through it. Other projects, such as those within the European Union some if which are funded by the Framework Programmes of the European Commission are also contributing to the technological progress aimed at an overall commitment to
facilitate production, distribution and archiving of scientific literature through multistakeholder collaborations. What researchers are actually enabled to do, and how they
would like to use these network services embody a field still to be explored as it varies
substantially according to disciplines, skills, professional ambitions, or even positive,
negative or indifferent attitudes towards the new Information Technologies.
49
Naturally, there are also differences according to the available (institutional) resources,
such as infrastructure, bandwidth, and expertise, in addition to the large varieties of
applications and interfaces often resulting in the delivery of ‘incompatible’ formats, so that
the article one cannot be viewed by the end-user. Furthermore, many digital collections are
difficult to find given the limits of current search engines, or because of the difficulties to
know more precisely what is and is not available in digital form in a given research field. In
spite of these barriers, the Internet offers a potential for research institutions, and its
advantages can no longer be ignored.
Nobody doubts that scientists and scholars are crucial agents in the digital publishing
revolution; in fact this is nothing new, since they were equally important before the
existence of the Internet, but what has complicated the situation is, among others, the new
business models of many stakeholders surrounding the research publications. Moreover, a
relatively new phenomenon is the implicit - now becoming more in the open - conflict
between a growing number of scientists as authors and their publishers. One way of
handling this is through an panoptic view that recognizes processes and relates them to the
roles within higher education:
- Academics participate simultaneously through a double role, by being instrumental in the
communities of production as authors, and in the communities of consumption, as readers.
- Academics perform distinct functions as scientists and educators respectively, according
to the two major divisions of Research and Education.
From the widespread adoption of ICTs in the workspaces15[iv] and the increasing
digitisation of scientific or scholarly essays, several major interrelated areas have come to
light, which require attention from different perspectives.16[v] Here I shall present two,
namely,
1. The access to scientific publications through the Internet, above all, electronic access to
journals, especially publications that are peer-reviewed.
2. The impact of the scholars’ research publications, with special emphasis on traditional
and electronic peer-reviewed journals.
Search, Access, and Usability Factors Scholars begin to rely more and more on the
prospective online presence of published material. In this context, one of the core issues in
international debates leads directly to access considerations. Indeed, the scientist’s
dependence on access to keep up-to-date with the knowledge production of peers had
already been stressed when the traditional printed journals' crises reached its peak in the
1990s due to budget restrictions for library acquisitions, etc.17[vi]
Scientific research and education require –by way of example– specific, therefore
customised, bibliographies and full text findings. However, the scholars’ online search for
articles may often be hindered in manifold ways. Thus, one of the key priorities that digital
publishing initiatives confront is the question of access. Next are the services and usability
factors that enable researchers to read, download, or print on demand - in short, use or reuse - the retrieved content without extra efforts on their part.
The phenomenon known as the “serials-crisis” or the “crisis of paper journals” prompted a
re-thinking of the current conditions and interests of the traditional publishing industry, both
commercial and not-for-profit. It also made manifest the large schism between the
publishers with their 'investment' objectives and the researchers' own interests. At the
academic level, it also became a new zone that required solutions, but was made more
urgent and complex by:
- The growing availability and/or uses of digital technologies
- Innovation needs in terms of collection management and services
50
- New ways of creating and organizing (digital) content.
In the midst of these challenges, libraries have become a central point. The first innovative
functions that libraries have been performing in the new era are digital archiving or storage
and retrieval services. Part of the effect of e-publishing (which can be off-line as well) or
online publishing is reflected in the difference between what we understood libraries to be
and what they are expected to be in the near future, as they have to shift from being a
physical site with relatively static collections to becoming interactive knowledge spaces
upon which a large part of the future flow of digital resources depends. With the adoption of
ICTs and the new uses of the Internet, the notion of 'collection' in libraries and memory
institutions has been changing, as have their systems for cataloguing and the technical
means to retrieve information from digital sources outside of their physical surrounding. The
very nature of the resources utilised to locate bibliographies and to find scientific literature
in journals is no longer the same. A significant sign is that the differences between
“repositories”, “archives”, libraries and particularly “databases” are not obvious for scholars
[vii]
- and needn’t be18 19 - when they are looking for specific information or documents.
Online databases and the licensing schemes have caused copyright infringement debates
putting the libraries' fair use of these in question, both because of this unclear
[viii]
differentiation, and the still ambiguous legislation around the Millennium Copyright Act.20
For researchers this can simply mean that a click to reach a ‘page’ online, may lead to a
“password” sign on the screen, because a fee or toll must be paid, and the institution to
which they ‘belong’ no longer subscribes to it. The importance of databases should not be
[ix]
underestimated, particularly in the sciences: In a recent study, Sathe, Grady, Giuse21
found that 88% of academics in their sample group cited database searching as their
method to discover an electronic journal.
One of the priorities of the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C] has been digital signature,
as encryption technology security measure for a variety of purposes. In relation to metadata
and other new technical “languages” to create an identification for each document,22[x] a
similar kind of digital signature is also useful as a detection system for downloading and
referencing.23[xi] A signature or unique identifier assigned to each digital document has
many applications in the commercial sector: the Digital Rights Management systems,
among others, is used by publishers to control or limit access to online journals, especially
aimed at those intending to read them without paying a fee. From the publishers’
perspective DRM systems facilitate the collection of income generated from licensing,
sales, and similar rights.24[xii] Leaving the publishers’ financial profit factor aside, the acts
of downloading and referencing of a scientific article are becoming key indicators for
readership and citation accountability when measured appropriately, through ad hoc
quantitative systems such as scientometrics, to assess the impact of a given publication.
After all, the “profile of expertise” is constructed, to a large extent, according to the number
of peer-reviewed scientific articles by a given author on a given subject. Nowadays, with
the help of the latest technology, it seems apparent that the construction of such profile can
be further refined. This dimension of measurement is part of the quality assessment
modes, and is evidence that the access factor cannot be seen as limited to the cost of
institutional and individual subscriptions or to assessment of appropriate infrastructure and
corresponding applications. For scholars as authors, contributing with content online
involves also their expectations of added-value visibility for their publications. For
institutions this implies providing facilities for rapid search technology or intelligent retrieval
systems designed to perform optimal operational harvesting in digital archives, indexes,
repositories. Surpassing the current obstacles requires, first of all, collaboration between
51
centralised and decentralised, or central vs. distributed archives25[xiii] and compatible
methods, tools, hosting practices and services. But this is not enough. Currently, the role of
central archives that limit or restrict access– by requiring payment of fees– is under
attack26[xiv] since they reduce the academic’s options to make the best of these services
for their research and education. The bottom-line situation is when the researchers
themselves, as authors, do not have access to their own published work in their libraries.
One of the key questions has been whether scientific publications should have open
access and/or whether they can be privately or institutionally controlled. Such
dichotomy - of open or closed access - has become complex, especially when electronic
publishing has unsettled the traditional stability of boundaries in a number of ways. Think of
the phenomenon of content boundaries or clearly defined areas of specialisation that
has existed in academic circles for centuries, but which electronic publishing has triggered
off as a specific problematic bundle. Apart from the major divisions - still prevalent between the sciences and humanities, the majority of online databases outside of the
sciences remain too general, or open to multi-disciplinarity in the widest sense. It is
interesting to note, conversely, that the usual divisions between disciplinary,
multidisciplinary, cross-disciplinary research on the one hand, and the group-specific
research in traditional scholarship on the other are being maintained or reflected in online
publishing. The importance of disciplinary approaches for the unity of content of a
repository and the search engines appropriateness to support the findings are indeed a
dilemma; so far, it can be best solved locally by the specific research institutions rather than
by standard formulae.
Another issue around new, unregimented territories refers to the blurring/haziness of
boundaries between databases and publications of articles in scientific journals.27[xv]
What defines the 'packaged' content - including a bibliography - in a database has had far
reaching effects for libraries (e.g. licensing, storing) and most importantly, for authors of
scientific articles, because it affects copyright ownership; therefore that ‘definition’
determines who is the proprietor of the rights of a given document, to be distinguished from
who or what organisation or entity holds the document in their repositories.
The discussion around subscriptions of academic publications should be briefly mentioned
here, but the situation is much more intricate since the positions have been divided, at
least: publishers, with an interest in charging high fees; libraries and their institutions, with
an interest in lowering fees; and among researchers as authors, with an interest in seeing
their work available or visible to as many readers as possible.
Nowadays, the predominant debates on the best ways to distribute published scholarship
revolve around advocating either open or free access versus restricted, or fee-dependent
access. These new alternatives involve not just the commercial or economic aspects of
access; of great importance for the scientific community is the issue of what is traditionally
known as the “moral rights” to own one’s work - as author - in order to be able to control
when and how to make it available without third parties’ controlling power or interference or
mediation. Why can’t authors make their work available online while a high quality journal
publishes it also both in print and online? From the publishers’ perspective, at least two
areas form the polemic around open or free access. The first one, less explicitly recognised
by the publishing industry in general is their own financial interest. Publishers are supposedly - at a disadvantage because of loss of revenue. Another argument from the
publisher’s side alludes to a costly technical requirement to produce or convert the articles
into other [compatible] formats for all to access it. There are many nuances missing here, of
course.
Such debates have been at the centre of the far-reaching discussions which in the last two
years have evolved into structured forums and debates that, in turn, not only provoke a rethinking of publishing on the whole but is also gradually leading to a transformation of
52
publishing practices. For example, in the biomedical sciences, both the role of centralised
archives and the ways in which its form of organisation limits or restricts access has been
questioned by different groups of academics. Another instance is a leading online debate
on about scientific publishing, initiated in this context by Nature on the impact of the WWW
on the publications of original research. There are now numerous sites where the learned
societies, academic institutions and scholars themselves have sustained the debates that
are resulting in specific measures, as we shall see in the concluding part of the present
article.
Some institutional online publishers have developed with success - such as Stanford
University's HighWire.28[xvi] More than a publisher, it has become a portal and major
repository of the sciences and medicine. It has reportedly handled over 341 sites, currently
contains slightly over 12 million articles, and has reached a high peak of 90 million hits per
week.29[xvii] PubMed Central is a publisher that has achieved an effective practice of
online publishing. This model of publishing and archiving offers links to various field-related
databases and easily readable material in terms of format, from PDF to HTML.30[xviii]. The
authors or their institutions, within the publishing business model of BioMedCentral, sustain
the costs of the peer-review system. The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has become a
leading mega repository which scientists can consult worldwide, provided that their
institutions bear the cost of access. NLM handles, among others, PubMed, PubMedCentral,
the GenBank, and the resources of publications by a number of learned societies.31[xix]
Scientists have been actively promoting change at the international level. From Special
Interest Groups (SIGs) and academic networking for common goals, to strategic virtual and
real-time meetings in symposia and workshops, the new organisations of scholars, initiated
by the sciences rather than the humanities, has given birth to what can rightly be
considered a specific social phenomenon. In the first quarter of 2001, a “movement”
started, prompted by scholars who urged their colleagues/peers to actually boycott those
journals whose publishers refuse to offer free online access after publication.32[xx]
Physicists and mathematicians 33[xxi] as well as cognitive scientists 34[xxii] have been
among the first to “free refereed literature on line.” For example, ArXiv35[xxiii] is "an e-print
service in the fields of physics, mathematics, non-linear science and computer science"
operated and funded by Cornell University and partially funded by the National Science
Foundation. It has several arXiv Mirror servers internationally.
As a response to the scientists' pressure upon their publishers, Science recently agreed,
“to free” or to provide free access to articles twelve months after the publication date. For
scientific authors this is evidently not satisfactory. The Journal of Cell Biology is allowing its
content to become free six months after publication.36[xxiv] For the majority of the journals
the controversy continues, mainly because of the publishers’ resistance to provide free
access, also because the lack of agreement between research and academic institutions
and the publishers, as well as the authors’ requirement that publications become free within
a shorter term or as soon as it is published. Such is the scene for the production of digital
publications in the sciences and mathematics. From day to day there are many other
initiatives that seek to implement or find a solution to their own challenges, each affecting
more a particular sector - whether this is institutional or public.
The scholars’ intention to refuse to publish [“boycott”] in high-fee or for-profit academic
journals has not been universally accepted or understood among peers. It is a particularly
sensitive matter because of the ensuing limited dissemination of their work. The majority of
53
the internationally recognised top quality journals require high cost of subscription fees, and
some also charge a fee for submission of an article. These facts have encouraged
additional institutional and individual initiatives. One of them comes from the authors, and
promotes self-archiving. A number of these strategies have become international projects
and are flourishing with the support of established research organisations. Good examples
include the Los Alamos (USA) and the CERN (Switzerland) servers37[xxv] providing the
basic architectural infrastructure for Open Archives. Metadata and Open Archives protocols
have been developed with the specific objective of serving the scientific and academic
community for electronic publication and dissemination of their work in different forms, as
well as for the archiving tools and services for digital libraries.
One of the leading projects in these areas is the Open Archives Initiative (OAI). As part of
the new alliances, we should also mention the non-profit electronic publishing project
SPARC, and the eprints organisation providing scholars with software to self-archive their
preprints38[xxvi]; new, free generic software has been an important tool facilitating the
establishment of preprint servers for scientific publications. Additional key organisations
include the Soros Foundation, which sponsors the access to electronic information for
libraries and is particularly supportive of scientific publications in developing or less
industrialised countries, and its platform known as the Budapest Open Access Initiative
[BOAI].
Bearing in mind that the majority of scholars participating in these projects have academic
affiliations, higher education institutions need to support further these self-archiving and
open archives ventures. However, the possibility for scholars to self-archive - as preprints
or postprints - their original primary research output is still in its initial stage and is only
fulfilling a partial need in the dissemination process.
Self-archiving needs yet to be better explained to most academics outside of the sciences
because it is usually - incorrectly - understood as simply ‘posting’ one’s work online without
any review processes or trajectory of formal publication. In fact, self-archiving - in the
context of the international discussions within special interest groups - refers to making
research work available to peers while it is forthcoming, before and while it is being
refereed. Moreover, there is often confusion among academics not directly involved in OAI
initiatives about what documents are meant to be part of the self-archiving practices.
Harnad, Carr, Brody39[xxvii] have clarified this important issue by writing that eprints
include both pre-refereeing preprints and refereed post prints, in electronic form. However,
for a true change, self-archiving needs to be adopted in a generic form by all researchers,
worldwide and in all disciplines; moreover, scholars cannot be left solely with the preprints
alternative. It is here that the role of digital publishing ventures and digital repositories that
are OAI-compliant become fundamental for a larger visibility of the work in their own
network environments and beyond. More digital OAI gateways are needed to guarantee
free access to scholarly research documents for the author's rewards and impact. But this
is just one side of the situation. One core question can be put in a simple way:
- Why is open access important for scholars? or,
- What is the point of demanding open access practice to publishers of scholarly journals?
The main purpose is, as explained earlier, “to maximize research impact.”40[xxviii]
According to Stevan Harnad, one of the leading and most systematic proponents of open
access:
“Researchers do research […] in order that the research results should be read, used, and
applied, to the benefit of all of us. That is research impact, and that is why research is
done, and supported. Anything that blocks access to those research findings is blocking
research impact, hence going against the interests of research, researchers, their
employers, their funders, and the tax-payers that fund the funders.”41[xxix] Currently,
54
researchers supportive of OA now have a clear-cut option, proposed as “Dual OpenAccess Strategy”, consisting of:
- “BOAI-2 (“gold”): Publish your article in a suitable open-access journal wherever one
exists.
- BOAI-1 (“green”): Otherwise, publish your article in a suitable toll-access journal and also
self-archive it.”42[xxx]
Linking Copyright, Open Access, and the Impact Factor: The Researcher as "Giveaway-author" For researchers, the "moral" aspect of copyright is more important than the
economic one. Scholars/scientists are considered “give-away authors” since the most
important motivation to publish, as we have seen, is the impact of their findings. As Harnad,
Varian & Parks 2000 have further explained, "Authors of refereed research reports are not
representative of authors in general [...]; in fact they are highly anomalous. Unlike the
authors of books, who write their texts for royalty income, or the authors of magazine
articles, who write them for fee income, the authors of refereed journal articles write solely
for their impact: Their texts are, and always have been give-aways, whereas most of the
rest of the published literature is non-give-away."
While traditional modes of publishing continue to exist, the innovations introduced by digital
publications are becoming more evident, particularly through the "born digital" content. The
advantages are a true asset, of which publishers of scientific literature are fully aware:
"nowadays it is technically possible to publish text documents - such as reports, and
research articles - faster than before, even within a day, and make it freely accessible
through the Internet" (Dennis Wheatley, Delphine Grynszpan 2002).43[xxxi] Such speed of
distribution and delivery is of crucial importance to researchers, particularly in the sciences,
as the time-span of the publication process is shortened substantially. In traditional models,
from the submission to a peer-reviewed scholarly journal the waiting period until notification
of acceptance or rejection takes several months. In the case of acceptance of the article,
there is an additional, sometimes longer waiting period until actual publication. Production
still takes a considerable length of time, from three months (for the fastest) to three years;
the “slow motion” or deferred publication can be frustrating as it affects impact. It is in this
phase of the publishing process that self-archiving is an attractive option: online visibility is
a non-financial added-value for the author, a reward for professional recognition with very
concrete potential outcomes: positive credentials among fellow scholars, building a highresearch profile for oneself and one’s institution; subsequently, these “values” can be
translated into tenure, or promotion, grant support, and so on. A hierarchy of journal listings
considered the best implicitly rules each field or discipline; faculty annual review
qualification of the scholar’s published list is, in the majority of institutions, based on that
‘traditional’ hierarchy . Most of the journals included are still produced as paper printed
issues. The trends of parallel publishing - both in print and online formats - constitute a new
middle ground for gradual acceptability of e-publishing in relation to faculty annual reviews.
A revision of the listings will be necessary at faculty level in a way that the governing
boards may include new online publishing modes as valid for academic staff assessment of
publishing performance. Such institutional or faculty revision or pro-active renewal
represents a significant support to scholars, and does not differ from the customary
updating of the master list of top publications that departments have been carrying out
throughout the years in the pre-Web era for their evaluation; . but adding quality online
journals is still uncommon. Why? Part of the challenges Faculties confront is that there are
no reliable reference points.
The current developments of online publishing offer the technical potential to apply multilevel quality control mechanisms that take advantage of the new crossroads of digital
expertise between scientometrics and metadata or in the (immediate) future developments
of ontologies in the Semantic web fostered by the World Wide Web Consortium
55
(http://www.w3c).44[xxxii] From the current debates on the subject of peer review, and given that in 2002 there were already about 6.000 peer-reviewed online journals (Rowan
2002), together with the impact-related issues - we can extrapolate that it will be more
fruitful to focus on quality control instruments - rather than on prestige listings of accepted
serials and journals - to measure whether scholarly performance is akin to the institutional
expectations. The Internet is an important new instrument through which scholars can
obtain not only a faster delivery of peer commentary as responses to prepublications,
providing thus a truly interactive method, but also the quantification of citation as new forms
of registering refereed discussion. The new indicators known as “high citation impact” and
“download impact correlations” can measure quality and institutional recognition for online
publications. With these advancements in technology there lays open a concrete field to
enhance the impact of scientific publications. There are already successful practices since
the sciences have been at the forefront of the advantages offered by the Internet 45[xxxiii]
Quality control instruments such as the "citation impact factor" supported by "harvested
citation-linked systems" can contribute substantially and benefit both scholars and their
institutions. Physicists were the first to use and benefit from the new key indicators through,
for instance the Los Alamos Physics Archive, which has 14 www mirror sites.46[xxxiv]
Learned societies have also participated. A good example is the American Physical
Society, which includes peer-reviewed journals, with a referee server.47[xxxv] The
American Physical Society (APS) publishes annually about 14,000 peer-reviewed papers,
selected from around 24,000 submitted articles. The journals are all available online;
however, to access articles a subscription is required.
As promised at the beginning of this article, I shall now refer to the current situation around
scholarly journals, scientific publications by authors, and publishing shake-ups resulting
from this. Let me quote from the SPARC Open Access latest Newsletter, issue 67, of
nd
November 2 , 200348[xxxvi]:
“October was one of the richest months for open access in memory. We saw the first PloS
journal, the Berlin Declaration on open access, an open-access journal series from the
University of California, a $12 million grant from the Australian government to a handful of
open-access repository projects, news from the ambitious journal scanning project from
PubMed Central, an agreement between the Oxford University Press and Oxford University
filling the institutional archive with the OUP articles by OU authors, an OA-friendly
statement from ALPSP, an OA-friendly communiqué from UNESCO, Amazon’s free search
service for full-text books, the AGORA Project, the Ptolemy Project, a call for worldwide
boycott of Cell Price journals to protest their high prices, signs of the spread of the boycott
to all Elsevier journals, a ruling from the U.S. Treasury department that U.S. trade
embargoes limit what scholarly journals can do, […] and an intriguing Elsevier stock
warning from BNP Paribas and Citigroup Smith Barney based on the promise of open
access publishing.”
A legitimate question pops up: Since these seem to be key initiatives, are they really impact
areas for researchers? The best answer would have to be an ambiguous one. Each one of
the “October events”, taken in isolation, is making effective changes within its own relevant
domain. By the same token, some may be the result of concerted actions carried out
throughout the recent years by different groups within the scholarly world. Each one of
these events is unsettling the “old ways” by introducing an unprecedented solution, by
articulating a direction for the near future. Take, for example, the “Berlin Declaration on
Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities” (October 22, 2003) that
supports the transition to the electronic “Open Access paradigm” and defines what it means
for scholars to make an OA contribution as well as determines the conditions the latter
56
st
must satisfy49[xxxvii]; or consider the Wellcom Trust report published on October 1 2003
that “reveals that the publishing of scientific research does not operate in the interests of
scientists and the public, but instead is dominated by a commercial market.50[xxxviii]
We can conclude that the current conditions of scientific and scholarly publishing are
changing. All stakeholders, commercial and not-for-profit, are becoming aware that it is no
longer a matter of trends but that indeed there has been a paradigm shift that has also
touched scholarly publishing. It seems that these are good times for more researchers to
get involved in order to give further impulse to the much-needed innovations. Perhaps what
we need is to contextualise these in our own local conditions and learn from the new
visions to build core values around e-publishing that we share as scholars, with our
institutions. Soon publishers of academic journals will no longer be the ones who dictate
how or whether our published work will be accessible to our peers; the road is open, thanks
to many academics worldwide, to enter into dialogue with ‘them’[the publishers] for an
actual collaboration. Indeed, we, as authors of research, need concrete dialogues with our
institutions. The Internet has put to test all traditional roles and practices, including our own.
The “publish or perish” policy remains, the “where” to publish not to perish needs
refreshing, the “how” to publish –online, offline– and under what conditions, is a larger
question.
Myriam Diocaretz, Ph.D.,
Digital Culture Research Strand Leader at the European Centre for Digital
Communication/Infonomics, and has been Project Manager for the Electronic Publishing
Project since 2001.
[email protected]
In this article I use the terms “scholars” and “scientists” to refer to academics publishing
research, in their roles as “authors.” “Scholars” is expressly used to include the Humanities
and Social Sciences.
49[
i]
49 49 Several topics in my article touch tangentially or complement Leo Waaijers’
comprehensive and informed lecture on scientific publishing, “Wetenschappelijk publiceren;
diefje-met-verlos”
http://www.unimaas.nl/publicatie/2003/pub2/lezing_leo_waaijers.htm
49[
ii]
49 49 Diocaretz, Myriam, "Copyright in the Network Environments", Going Digital
Conference, May 3 2001, Universiteit Maastricht.
[iii]
49 Internet2, "is a consortium being led by 200 universities working in partnership with
industry and government to develop and deploy advanced network applications and
technologies, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 is recreating the
partnership among academia, industry and government that fostered today's Internet in its
infancy."
[iv]
49 I include the mobility allowed by virtual work environments.
[v]
49 An in-depth analysis these two directions appear as diverging and converging; I leave
this discussion for another context for reasons of space.
[vi]
49 For more details on the library’s perspective, I refer the reader to Leo Waaijers,
“Wetenschappelijk publiceren; diefje-metverlos”,http://www.unimaas.nl/publicatie/2003/pub2/lezing_leo_waaijers.htm
[vii]
49 This is the aim in “embedded” technology.
[viii]
50 Ref. I discuss copyright issues in a forthcoming article.
50[ix] Sathe, Nila, Grady, Jenifer, and Giuse Nunzia, Print versus electronic journals: a
preliminary investigation into the effect of journal format on research processes Journal of
the Medical Library Association, 2002 April; 90 (2): 235–243
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=100770
[x]
50 Such systems exist, such as the Digital Object Identifier.
[xxx]
50
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/berlin.htm and
57
PUBLICATIONS :
La page de la CE IST event 2004
http://europa.eu.int/information_society/istevent/2004/cf/viewpeopledetail.cfm?peopl
e_id=4353
The European Centre for Digital Communication/Infonomics page
http://www.ecdc.info/about/people_cv.php?id=65
[xxxviii]
1
The Wellcome Trust’s statement can be read at:
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/1/awtvispolpub.html
Complete publications list as author, in “Author-Functions” and as Editor in “MDD Editor”
pages in the website :
http://www.myriamdiocaretz.net/pages/2/index.htm
The Matrix Trilogy and the New Theory, Ed. Myriam Diocaretz & Stefan Herbrechter,
Editions Rodopi: New York/Amsterdam, forthcoming.
Joyful Babel : Translating Hélène Cixous, Ed. Myriam Diocaretz & Marta Segarra,
Editions Rodopi: New York/Amsterdam, 2004
Internet, Development and Education at Higher Education Institutions in Latin
America: Cases Studies of Chile and Brazil (empirical and critical study), Myriam
Diocaretz 2002, published on-line and freely available on
http://www.globalequality.info/reports/IDEla.pdf
Breve Historia Feminista de la Literatura Española (en Lengua Castellana). Vol. I
Teoría Feminista: Discursos y Diferencia. Enfoques Feministas de la Literatura
Espaňola Edited by Myriam Díaz-Diocaretz and Iris M. Zavala. Barcelona: Anthropos,
1993
Discurso Erótico y Discurso Transgresor en la Cultura Peninsular Siglos XI al XX
Edited by Myriam Díaz-Diocaretz and Iris M. Zavala. Madrid: Tuero, 1992.
Hélène Cixous, Chemins d'une écriture Edited by Myriam Díaz-Diocaretz and Françoise
van Rossum-Guyon, Paris: Presses Universitaires de Vincennes, Saint-Denis &
Amsterdam/Atlanta: Rodopi, 1990
The Bakhtin Circle Today Edited by Myriam Díaz-Diocaretz, Critical Studies Special
Issue, Vol. 1, No.2, Amsterdam/Atlanta: Editions Rodopi, 1989. Available again from 2004.
Per une poetica della differenza. Il testo sociale nella scrittura delle donne, Myriam
Diaz-Diocaretz Translated into Italian by Liana Borghi and Liliana Losi, Firenze: Estro
Editrice, 1989
Approaches to Discourse, Poetics, and Psychiatry Edited by I. M. Zavala, Myriam
Díaz-Diocaretz and Teun A. van Dijk, coordinated by Bill Dotson Smith. Critical Theory 4.
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1987
Translating Poetic Discourse: Questions on Feminist Strategies in Adrienne Rich,
Myriam Diaz-Diocaretz Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1985
The Transforming Power of Language: The Poetry of Adrienne Rich, Myriam DiazDiocaretz Utrecht: HES, 1984
58
INTERVENANTS ATELIERS
WORKSHOP SPEAKERS
1 - Statégies de développement centrées sur l’usager
1 - User based development strategies
CHRISTOPHE GENIN (modérateur / moderator)
Maître de conférences à l'U.FR. d'Arts et Sciences de l'art de l'Université Paris 1 PanthéonSorbonne
CV présenté dans la session plénière
JENS CAVALLIN (observateur / observator)
"Lector" pour médias et communication - Professeur associé de l'école supérieure nationale
Högskolan à Kalmar / "Docent" au Département des études sur la culture et société (Tema Kultur
och Samhälle) de l'université de Linköping.
Jens Cavallin served as Chief Secretary of the Swedish Council for Pluralism in the Media 199597 (an expert committee replaced by a Parliamentary Committee), commissioned to propose
special legislation for the protection of pluralism in the media. He also participated in the work of
the Enlarged Working Party on Media Concentrations and Pluralism of the Council of Europe, as
well as the consecutive Expert Committees (MM-CM) from 1990 (Chairman 1993-1994, vicechairman from 1997).
SANDRA FAUCONNIER
Media archivist
Sandra Fauconnier obtained a BA in architecture in 1994 and an MA in art history at Ghent
University, Belgium, in 1997, with a dissertation about "Web-specific art: the World Wide Web as
an artistic medium". She has published and lectured frequently on the subject of internet art and
media art. In 1997-2000 she worked as web designer, webmistress, educator and educational
technologist at the Teacher Training Department, Ghent University, Belgium. In February 2000
she became media archivist at V2_, Institute for the Unstable Media in Rotterdam, where she
develops a description system for V2_'s archive, initiated a thesaurus on media art, works with a
team of developers on V2_'s website and is involved in various research projects related to
copyright and the preservation of electronic art.
http://www.v2.nl/
http://archive.v2.nl/
http://www.spinster.be/writing/
59
MARCEL MARS- NENAD ROMIC (Speaker)
Web developer and programmer
CV Resume:
Nenad Romic (également connu sous le nom
de Marcell Mars) est l’un des fondateurs du
Multimedia institute - mi2 + net.culture club
mama in Zagreb. Il a été l’initiateur de
plusieurs projets tel le label EGOBOO.bits GNU GPL et la plate-forme collaborative en
ligne TamTam. Il a produit et/ou organisé
l’exposition annuelle de mi2 "I'm still alive"
2001. ainsi que <re:Con> 2002. Il est l’un des
coordinateurs du camp d’été d’Otokultivator,
défenseur
des
logiciels
libres,
system/network administrateur et utilisateur
d’advanced Linux.
http://www.mi2.hr
http://www.egoboobits.net
http://tamtam.mi2.hr/TamTamDev
http://www.mi2.hr/alive
http://re.mi2.hr
http://www.otokultivator.org
http://www.gnupauk.org
Nenad Romic (aka Marcell Mars) is one of the
founders of Multimedia institute - mi2 +
net.culture club mam in Zagreb. He initiated
several projects like EGOBOO.bits - GNU GPL
publishing label & TamTam online colaborative
platform. He produced or/and curated mi2
annual exhibitions "I'm still alive" 2001.,
<re:Con> 2002 and "Freedom to Creativity"
festival of free culture in 2005.. He is one of the
founders/coordinators of Otokultivataor summer camp, advocate of free software,
system/network admin & advanced Linux user.
Currently works on editing the GNU Pauk
reader dealing with free software phenomenon
within the larger cultural context.
http://www.mi2.hr http://www.egoboobits.net
http://www.otokultivator.org
http://tamtam.mi2.hr/TamTamDev
http://www.mi2.hr/alive http://re.mi2.hr
http://www.gnupauk.org
Subject of intervention:
“Free software collaborative models of production are a big inspiration and challenge (to
implement) for many others in different fields of intellectual production.
Still most of the time attempts to try it end up for most people in "not enough time" excuses.
The best way for a newbie to succeed in joining the free software revolution is to find small, easy
to do steps which everyone is able to do. and to do that together with friends.
There are a few typical assumptions which we need to rethink and throw away before we start
with easy steps:
- we don't need windows with their title bars on screen to click what we want to be done for
us by computer
- we don't need well known corporate products to do our jobs
- we don't need the office metaphor to interact with computer
- we don't need the physical space metaphor to manage information
After we throw it away we can go back and use our favorite web browser in a similar way to using
web mail and join the world of social software. With social software we can move from the
metaphor of physical space to the real semantic web, from old static libraries to dynamic
collaborative environments which manage the biggest free encyclopedia ever made by humanity.
After we feel the freedom and collaboration we are ready to switch to free software in daily life.”
60
He would like to move from open source development models to 'social software' and 'semantic
web' which just recently got quite good examples in practice. He would like to talk about social
software projects like:
http://www.wikipedia.org, http://del.icio.us, http://www.flickr.com and http://www.technorati.com/
neither of them (except wikipedia) being free open source software but having multitude as a
main force of development of values.
He would also like to point how much blogging hype borrowed from free open source software
development models and actually how some meme (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme) got
accepted and then globally we got relevant change in field of publishing of information and news
but technologically not having any really revolutionary change (-> regular news logs with
comments were not so different than blogs).
Texts:
http://www.gnupauk.org/EnglishGnuSpectrum/EgoBooBitsEng
http://tamtam.mi2.hr/EgobooBits/BooRefleksija/BooReflection
http://www.gnupauk.org/DiskusiJa/PrijedloZi/BothDevilAndGnu
Links to check:
http://www.shirky.com/writings/ontology_overrated.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folksonomy
http://www.benkler.org/CoasesPenguin.PDF
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
MILENA DEBROVA
Ph.D.—Informatics and Applied Mathematics (1999), M.Sc.—Informatics, Sofia University (1991).
Head of the Department Digitisation of Scientific Heritage, Institute of Mathematics and
Informatics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
Fields of interest: digital preservation of and access to cultural and scientific heritage, IT
methods for studying linguistic variation and change, computer presentation and analysis of
mediæval Slavonic texts, electronic publishing, education in information technologies for students
with background in Humanities.
Currently is coordinating the project KT-DigiCult-Bg project (Knowledge Transfer in Digitisation of
Cultural and Scientific Heritage to Bulgaria; FP6 project MTKD-509754, Marie Curie programme,
May 2004-2007).
Served as an Academic director of three international summer schools in the field of applications
of ITC in the Humanities, and coordinator of five international workshops. Programme committee
th
chair of the 9 ICCC Conference on Electronic Publishing ElPub 2005 (www.elpub.net). Invited
lecturer at UNESCO training for library specialists from Croatia; Pula, 2000 and the Summer
University programme of the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary (1997, 1996)
Bulgarian Expert at the Science and Technology Workgroup at the Central European Initiative
(CEI) since 2003. Member of the Expert Committee on Information Technologies at the National
Science Fund, Ministry of Education and Science of Bulgaria (2003-2004). Consultant of the
Electronic publishing development program, OSI-Budapest (2000-2001). Member of the expert
committee Information and Documentation of the Bulgarian Committee for Standardisation (since
1998).
Academic Award for young researchers for original achievements in the computer representation
of mediæval Slavonic texts (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1998).
61
KIMMO LEHTONEN (Speaker)
Web development consultant
Kimmo Lehtonen (1967- ) is a Finnish web development consultant, planner and producer. He
has ten years of experience in the design and production of web services mainly for cultural
festivals, museums and institutes, both private and public cultural institutions as well as EU
projects.
1995 - 1996: Information officer in Helsinki City Library
1996 - 1997: Information officer in City of Helsinki Cultural Department
1997 - 2001: Producer in Lasipalatsi Film and Media Centre Urban Pilot -programme
2001 - 2005: Independent consultant for Lasipalatsin Film & Media Centre, City of Helsinki
Cultural Department, Helsinki City Art Museum, Helsinki Festival
2003 - 2006: Project secretary of Urban-Culture -project for UrbanII -programme
From User Based Web Development to the Extreme Management
The development of the World Wide Web today is mostly technology driven. The
reason for the fast pace of the development are the competitiveness and innovativeness of
the Internet. Hardware producers comes out with more powerful machines, Internet Service
Providers develop higher bandwidths, commercial developers promote new technologies
for regular version updates and the open source community spring out new innovations for
it's own sake, just to prove a point or to provide more choices.
At the same time the importance of the web is constantly growing. The web offers a fast,
verasitile, up-to-date and sometimes also a cheap method of distributing information,
communication and services for both private and public providers. During the recent years
the web has become the most important media. For new and and ever growing user
groups, the web has come the primal source of communication, information and shopping private and public services are moving to the web with an increasing speed. The web is at
the same time essential part of the emerging globalisation as well as the basis of it.
New services are naturally based on the latest technology which is used as efficiently as
possible. But usually neither private and public Customers are not sufficiently aware of the
limits and possibilities of the web technology. Specially in the situation where the realisation
and development of service is outsourced there is a lack of communication or common
nominators, between service providers ie. the Customers and the developers ie. the
Contractors. Usually the contractor is not involved in the planning phase of the service and
the Customer is not involved in the design and realisation of the service.
The focus for any viable web service should be user experience. The conceptual design
should be based on very simple and open description of satisfying the needs of a user. This
concept could be based on the wish to provide the user immersive experiences, information
or concrete service, like on-line shopping or reservation etc.
The concept should be open-ended, so that the method of realisation and technological
solutions can change at any time during the development.
The volatile field of web development is only about 10 years old and most development
is still being done in the traditional way of software industry. But the old models of
development are not easily transferred to the web environment. The main problem is that
Customer is not the same as the User. What is even more, in the global context, where
local and global are diffused, the User can be even extremely difficult to define. It is
epidemic that the Customers and Constructors speak different languages and the User is
easily forgotten.
The best way to tackle the problems of web productions is to take a new approach to
project management. New users’ roles emphasising programming techniques like Agile
Software
development
(www.agilemanifesto.org)
or
Extreme
Programming
(www.extremeprogramming.org) can also be used as a guideline for good project practices.
62
Extreme programming was first developed by two Californian programmers Kent Beck
and Ward Cunningham in the late nineties from the basis of their own experiences in the
software industry. Extreme Programming or XP is specially well suited for organically and
fast paced development of Internet services and programs.
The process of XP is based on a traditional pattern of planning, designing, production
and testing but with a new approach. The traditional model is that the whole project is seen
as one and the Customer is involved only in beginning and the end, in the planning and the
testing phases. In XP the project is split into smaller parts and the pattern is repeated for
each part individually and the Customer is participating throughout the project.
In XP the planning or specification phase is based on User Stories. The User Stories
use metaphors to find a common language and communication between the Customer and
Contractor. In the initial planning only the minimal requirements and features are described.
This description is then used for architectural design and realisation of the initial phase.
This first alpha version is then tested and used as the base for the next iteration of User
Story, which describes new features and specifications for next design and production. The
aim of XP is to produce new versions with new features as quickly as possible, the code is
being constantly rewritten, reused, integrated and re-factored. Whole parts of the work can
be re-done as the process goes on. The development is not fixed to any one solution from
the beginning to the end.
For user based web development the main thing about XP is that the Customer is all the
time very much involved in the development. The project moves forward organically and is
based on actual requirements and realistic resources. The XP model provides high
awareness of the technologies and solutions and a deep insight to the project. It suites
particularly into cases where there is no established model for the program or service in
question or in the case that, for one reason or other, the model is not available or
satisfactory.
The final result of the development is a software or a service which has no unwanted
or unnecessary, difficult to use or badly realised parts. It is also cost-efficient and less timewasing than traditional project schemes. The planning, design and production all aim to one
target - a satisfying the Users needs.
Extreme programming is very intense and demanding but also very rewarding. It
requires openness, trust and close communication between the Customer and Contractor.
It might look like the hard way, but it is the right way to build viable and meaningful web
services.
63
2 - Echanges, participation et mobilité
2 - Exchange, participation and mobility
CORINA SUTEU (modératrice /moderator)
Consultant and researcher
President of EcumEst
CV présenté dans la session plénière
STEPHANE JUGUET (observateur / observator)
Anthropologue
Stéphane JUGUET est anthropologue au Laboratoire des Usages et des Technologies
d'Information Numériques (LUTIN) à la Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie de Paris. Au sein de ce
laboratoire, il anime un programme de recherche sur la mobilité et les nouvelles technologies
portatives. Chercheur au COSTECH (Université de Technologie de Compiègne), il est également
le fondateur de l'association Enigmatek Editions. Au sein de cette structure, il mène une réflexion
anthropologique sur le rapprochement entre Arts, Sciences et Nouvelles technologies. Son statut
de chercheur hybride (Arts, Sciences et Technologies) l’a conduit à collaborer avec de multiples
artistes : Johann Le Guillerm, Jasmine Vegas… Aujourd’hui, dans le cadre d’un projet intitulé «
Conteners », il mène une réflexion originale sur les modes de restitution d’une œuvre artistique
en situation de mobilité. A la croisée de l’art, des sciences et de l’industrie, "Conteners" forme un
réseau d'œuvres collective dont la logistique repose sur les nouvelles technologies, l'infomobilité,
la cartographie dynamique...
EMMANUEL MAHE (speaker)
Ingénieur, chercheur, Ph. D
Emmanuel Mahé est chercheur à France Télécom R&D. Docteur en Sciences de l'information et
de la communication, ses activités de recherche sont liées à une réflexion théorique et à une
pratique de prospective des usages et des services dans le domaine des TIC. Une des questions
clées de ses recherches concernent les usages émergents et les usages de détournements
(signaux faibles, usages artistiques). Il a récemment soutenu une thèse de doctorat dont le sujet
était : "Pour une esthétique in-formationnelle. La création artistique comme anticipation des
usages sociaux des TIC" (travail doctoral primé par le CREIS 2005). Egalement investi dans le
champ culturel (avec notamment la direction artistique du festival "rencontres Arts Electroniques"
de Rennes, de 1994 à 2002), il est également chercheur associé à l'équipe d'accueil ERELLICERSIC (Centre d'Etudes et de recherche en Sciences Info-COm) de l'université Rennes 2 et
participe à de nombreux colloques et séminaires internationaux (Paris, Helsinki...).
64
ROB VAN KRANENBURG (speaker)
Innovation consultant
Rob van Kranenburg (1964) graduated cum laude in Literary Theory at Tilburg University (Nl). He
went to work with Prof Ronald Soetaert in Ghent, in the Educational Department, developing
online learning modules, methods and concepts drawing on the idea of multiliteracies. In 2000 he
went to Amsterdam to work as programmer on media education at the centre for culture and
politics de Balie and as teacher-coordinator of the new media program in the Film and Television
Studies Department at the University of Amsterdam. Feeling it was to young a field to
predominantly historize it, he moved to Doors of Perception and co-programmed with John
Thackara Doors 7, Flow, the design challenge of pervasive computing. In 2003 he mentored a
postgraduate course in performance, theatre and the arts at APT, Arts Performance Theatricality.
For the past two years he has been working part time at Virtual Platform, Dutch policy and
network organization for e-culture, as interim and now as co-director. One day is for teaching
(mostly at Arts and Design Academies). As innovation consultant he is mainly involved with
negociability strategies of new technologies, predominantly ubicomp and rfid (radio frequency
identification), the relationship between the formal and informal in cultural and economic policy,
and the requirements for a sustainable cultural economy.
THOMAS HART (expert/speaker)
Project Manager for Bertelsmann Foundation
Thomas Hart's responsibilities as Project Manager within the German-based Bertelsmann
Foundation cover a variety of issues related to the challenges of Information Society. He is
engaged in the development of new concepts for regulating telecommunication, information and
media markets, internet content self-regulation, Internet Governance, the digital challenges for
the audiovisual industry as well as the role of New Media in fostering civic society.
Thomas joined the Bertelsmann Foundation early in 2000 after completing his Ph.D. in
economics at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany) on the topic of European
telecommunications policy. He has studied economics and public finance in Nürnberg, Germany,
as well as economics and film & media studies at the University of Stirling, Scotland. He has
authored publications on European telecommunications policy, media regulation, e-government,
freedom of information as well as on the history of economic thought.
Money or attention?
Drafting an "Interdisciplinary Theory of Searching and Finding"
Thomas Hart and Karsten Kumoll1
- Interim Report on a research program in progress prepared for the 52nd ICA Annual Conference,
July 15-19, 2002
Seoul Hilton
Seoul, Korea
Information is a fundamental resource of personal, economic and cultural development.
After decades of treating it as a rather minor factor in economic growth and a side-aspect of
social interrelations, the Economics of Information has evolved as a key explanatory factor
for the mechanisms that govern our economies and our private lifes (see eg. Shapiro,
Varian: Information Rules, Harvard Business School Press 1998). The Internet as our most
recent mass medium plays a crucial role as basis for information retrieval: "In 2001, 60
percent of all users consider the Internet to be a very important or extremely important
source of information, up from 53.6 percent in 2000. Add those who say moderately
important, and the total increases to 90.8 percent for 2001, up from 77.2 percent in 2000. In
2001, 58 percent of users in 2001 believe that most or all of the information online is
reliable and accurate - an increase from 54.8 percent in 2000." (UCLA Internet Report,
65
2001; see www.ccp.ucla.edu). However, the times of general Internet euphoria are over.
Buzzwords like Information free of charge or The world's biggest library have given way to
the realization that while on the Internet the relevant and precious information potentially is
only a mouse click away, frequently it nevertheless remains beyond reach. In general, there
are two reasons for that. Firstly, numerous pages of high-quality Internet content – in
particular, cases featuring highvalue information – are only accessible against payment:
press archives (for instance, those of the renowned Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung or of
the very successful Web pages of the "Spiegel" magazine), scientific online journals,
economic or legal data content (for instance from "Juris") is of such high value to the users
that they are prepared to pay money for it. In general, the more the information is dedicated
to specialized interests, the higher is the preference intensity on part of the potential users
and their willingness (and usually ability) to pay for it. The 1 Dr. Thomas Hart is a freelance
Economics Consultant and Director Media Policy at the Bertelsmann Foundation,
Gütersloh, Germany. Karsten Kumoll is Project Assistant in the Media Policy Team of the
Bertelsmann Foundation.
Proprietors or administrators of such Internet content do not need to draw much attention to
their content. It is merely necessary to carefully identify the preferences of the target group
and design the offerings in a way that creates high convenience and high usability for them.
While this task is not trivial, it is still a rather minor effort as compared to the task of
overcoming the "freeby" attitude of non-commercial users that show a rather general and
unspecialized interest in a number of topics. This is the very challenge providers of popular
content, of entertainment or general interest content have to face: The preference intensity
(the "desire") to access a specific bit of content is lower and less easy to evaluate. This
problem is enhanced by the culture of "free content" that shaped usage pattern in the
Internet from the outset. Usage becomes volatile: Price-Elasticity of demand is extremely
high when (1) users are accustomed to free content, (2) in the global web, there are usually
plenty of substitutes for any given set of information, and (3) the ability to find these
substitutes becomes higher with the development of more and more sophisticated search
engines and information agents.
Secondly, in view of the "information jungle" represented by the Internet, the average users
(for lack of experience) and business users (for lack of time) are only in a position to an
inadequate degree to actually find the content they are looking for. This is in part a
technological challenge: it requires the technology to fulfil the information desire of a given
user as closely as possible – to create the perception of a highly immersive search
process. Solutions including artificial intelligence that learn users' preferences are still far
away. Yet it remains the challenge to apply any behavioral search pattern of the offline
world to the online world. Only if the user has the perception of being able to apply a
continuous and technology-neutral search behavior, the perception of relevance will grow
into the perception of utter convenience. This perception of a new added-value is the
prerequisite for willingness-to-pay. This complex pattern of attitude influences business
models of search engine providers as well as of content providers. The current movements
of vertically and horizontally highly integrated media corporations shows awareness about
the importance of these issues is there: Integration does not only mean that all parts of the
value chain are under control and that production and distribution strategies can be well coordinated. It also means that content can be offered in a way that is most accessible and
"findable" for a customer. Long-lasting relationships between content provider and user
allow the provider to learn much about individual preferences and usage patterns. This
again allows the provider to permanently adopt the "search and find" environment to the
users' needs. A search engine that is not part of a content provider, on the other hand, has
to put up additional effort to create a feeling of comfort and convenience for the user. The
use of highly specialized search engines, sophisticated peer-to-peer platforms (e.g. the
commercialization of Napster) or individually customized avatars against payment of a
charge are among the future models of Internet business. Furthermore it is the content
providers who are prepared to pay money to draw attention from those instruments upon
which users rely in searching the Web for information: the search engines. A likely strategy
66
for content providers therefore is t provide their own search engines and to make them an
integral part of their "onestop shop".
Money and attention designate the double focus of this paper. Searching for information is
an economic process insofar that information is a crucial resource for economic
development in general. Our assumption is that the development of the Internet will
increase moves in the direction of business models in which money will be the center of
attention for data mining or information retrieval – whether it is the money of the users or
that of the providers. Therefore it seems that money lies at the heart of the global
information capitalism called, in Castells’ famous expression, the “Network Society”
(Castells 2000). Within this framework, money could be the central information bottleneck
within the “Age of Access” (Rifkin 2000). However, in this view the development of modern
societies in the age of globalization, indeed the development of global capitalism in general,
is reduced to an economic process. It does not make sense to analyze economic,
psychological and cultural aspects of the information society separately, because they are
deeply interrelated. A sociological analysis of the Internet focusing on the development of
new business models can show that economic development based on the Internet cannot
be properly understood without analyzing the people concerned – the Internet users.
However, on the basis of an exclusive analysis of Internet users without taking into account
economic and political aspects, it is not possible to investigate current developments of the
Internet. In order to investigate the relationship between „money“ and „attention“ on the
Internet from a sociological perspective, the Bertelsmann Foundation has initiated a major
research project about the challenges of information society in the age of the Internet. The
central focus that is of concern here is the question how and why people actually search for
information in the Internet on the one hand and how this is related to the business models
and corporate responsibilities of content providersand search engine operators as well as
the economic and political development on the other. At this point search engines naturally
play a crucial role. One of the particularities of the Internet is the fact that the relationship of
the user to the medium is not purely passive: in addition to requesting information, users
can themselves post data on the Net. The Internet therefore represents a huge platform for
interactive communication. The users’ growing need to acquire an overview of this pool of
electronic information mirrors the extent to which the Internet produces information and
disinformation, opinion and speculation. Today there are about 550thousand million
Internet pages with about seven million being added each day. The task of opening up the
exponentially growing Net must be left to electronic utility programs. These programs are
available in the form of search engines or information agents or as a result of preselection
within the framework of topic-specific portals or catalogues. The search engines constantly
work their way automatically through the Internet and note the addresses and the contents
of Internet documents. They automatically store this information in their own databases
and, as a result, are in a position to help users with their queries. During a search the user
is presented with the results of the query in a particular order.
These “information sorters” already assume a key role on the Internet. Their quality will
determine how users find their way around the Internet, how they inform themselves, how
they consume entertainment offerings or whether they succeed at all in mastering the
enormous mass of information that is available. Without this acceptance on the part of
users the Internet will fail to develop to the full its social and economic potential. Search
engines are the gatekeepers of the Internet. In certain sections they even replace the
functions of journalists.
Users who are not prepared to pay money are dependent on free-of-charge search engines
for their information retrieval. However, the algorithm according to which the search engine
determines the order of the query results, so-called ranking, is one of the Internet’s best
kept secrets. Unfortunately, a mandatory, clear sort criterion according to which, for
example, a search engine might present the results of a query is not yet available. The
research project initiated by the Bertelsmann Foundation analyzes cultural, political and
economic aspects of search engines. On the cultural side the project investigates activities
of people searching for information by using search engines. On the economic level search
67
engines are investigated as an example of business models that interpret information as
economic good. On the political level the project investigates societal implications of search
engines. It is aked whether there is the danger of monopolization of information; indeed,
whether there could be the need of regulation strategies by the state, the industry or the
users concerned.
The investigation of how people use search engines, what they think about them and which
role they play in their life can build on research on media use and consumption in general.
Anthropological and sociological studies by Geertz (1973), Sahlins (2000), Bourdieu
(1977), among others, emphasize the importance of symbolic life-worlds for explaining
action. Thus they are a brilliant starting point in building up a research design that takes
into account the so-called „cultural turn“ in the human sciences (Reckwitz 2000). However
these symbolic approaches underemphasize strategic aspects of action (Alexander 1987).
Therefore it is necessary to acknowledge rational choice studies without eliminating
symbolic aspects of action. Besides symbolic and strategic aspects of action it is necessary
to include the habitualization of action. This aspect of action is what scholars like Bourdieu
(1979) and Schatzki (2001) term „social practice“. Building on this model of human action
our goal is to investigate three aspects of using search engines: First, what people think
about search engines, their actions in order to get information by using search engines and
the role this information acquired plays in their life; second, what they actually do when
using search engines; third, why they do what they do. In this context, credibility and
subjectively perceived relevance of information will deserve some attention.
Within a rational choice framework, there is no room for measuring utility of information for
the individual objectively. Instead, the only relevant criterion is the individual's perception of
that relevance. There are no prior studies about search engines that recognize the complex
interrelation of cultural, sociological and psychological factors explaining the use people
make of search engines. However, our approach draws on prior research in the fields of
anthropology and cultural studies. Scholars like Sahlins (2000), Douglas & Isherwood
(1978) and Miller (1987) stress the importance of consumption for social integration and
cultural identity. These lines of research are continued by Miller and Slater (2000) who
apply the research design of so-called „Anthropology of Consumption“ on the Internet.
Cultural Studies do not focus on identity building but rather on social inequality and power
mechanisms. Adding to this a rational choice perspective, one gets a powerful research
framework that allows to explain consumption of search engines from different
perspectives. The advantage of combining different models of explaining action is that each
model has specific blind spots. This interdisciplinary framework could even install better
understanding between hostile scientific disciplines and paradigms.
Using this flexible, innovative approach we focus on the following themes:
_ The role of search engines for social and cultural integration. If search engines are part of
a far-reaching consumption process, one central feature of search engines is their role in
social and cultural integration. In this point we follow the results of the „Anthropology of
Consumption“.
_ Identity formation: we assume that search engines play a leading role in building forms of
cultural identity. This point could easily linked with the famous study by Hobsbawn &
Ranger (1983) about the „invention of tradition“. Search engines could play a leading role in
the cultural construction of modern societies as „information societies“ where information is
perceived to be accessible easily by everyone.
_ Power: Search engines can be interpreted, following approaches within the framework of
Cultural Studies, as operators of the connection of power and knowledge (Foucault 1991)
that establishes new networks of power. In this paradigm, search engines do not establish
cultural identity but help to ensure social inequality and invisible power relations.
_ Rationality: Contrary to this theory, rational choice models believe in the conscious
rational actor. Building on the approach search engines could indeed be part of a revolution
that help rational actors to search for information at low cost.
Methodologically we try to press ahead with our research dialectically: our approach is not
only theory-based but comprises large parts of both qualitative and quantitative empirical
68
research. We believe that combining theoretical and empirical research is the best way to
investigate specific aspects of searching for information using search engines.
Besides this, our project additionally focuses on business models of any given Internet
content provider. Here we choose mainly a rational choice (or New Institutional Economics,
see Hart 1997, Chapter "I") perspective. The consequences for this application in an
"Economic Theory of Searching and Finding" are twofold (and exactly the same as in the
offline world):
_ first, you have to draw the attention of the potential user to your offering
_ second, you have to suggest that the additional value generated by accessing this
content is higher than the cost of accessing it.
There are differences to an offline marketing situation, however: In an offline environment,
users are relatively ignorant of the costs of searching and processing information about,
say, a certain product. The monetary cost is usually the dominant determinant for the
decision-making process.
In the Internet economy, on the other hand, a vast majority of "products" (e.g.: information)
has no other costs than those of finding it. The Internet shifts the issues of information
costs into the center of attention. This causes an effect that is in part responsible for many
of the problems "New Economy" business models faced and face: if a user already spent
resources (time, in particular) to find the "product", her / she is less inclined to paying an
additional price once he / she found it. This does not apply to products already known from
the offline world (physical products such as books, cars, clothes). It applies very much to
non-physical products. In the terminology of Negroponte: you are less likely to pay for
"bits", while you don't have a problem paying for "atoms" - even if the marginal value
created by the "bits" would be higher!
Our focus on cultural, economic and political aspects of search engines is a useful starting
point for interdisciplinary work in the evolving field of Internet studies. In combining
sociological, anthropological and economic knowledge we present a research framework
that overcomes the false dichotomy between „money“ and „attention“.
Bibliography
Alexander, Jeffrey (1987): Twenty Lectures: Sociological Theory Since World War II.
Columbia University Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1977): Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge University Press.
Castells, Manuel (2000): The Rise of the Network Society. Blackwells (2nd edition).
Douglas, Mary & Baron Isherwodd (1978): The World of Goods. Routledge.
Foucault, Michel (1991): Discipline and Punish. Penguin.
Geertz, Clifford (1973): The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books.
Hart, Thomas (1997): Neue Politische Ökonomie: Eine Systematisierung außermarktlicher
Ökonomik. Nürnberg: Verlag GFF (2nd Edition).
Hobsbawn, Eric & Terence Ranger (1983): The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge
University Press.
Miller, Daniel (1987): Material Culture and Mass Consumption. Blackwell.
Miller, Daniel & Don Slater (2000): The Internet: An Ethnographic Approach. Berg
Publishers.
Reckwitz, Andreas (2000): Die Transformation der Kulturtheorien. Zur Entwicklung eines
Theorieprogramms. Velbrück Wissenschaft.
Rifkin, Jeremy (2000): The Age of Access: The New Culture of Hypercapitalism, Where all
of Life is a Paid-For Experience. Jeremy P. Tarcher.
Sahlins, Marshall (2000): Culture in Practice: Collected Essays. Zone Books.
Schatzki, Theodore R. (Ed. 2001): The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory. Routledge.
69
3 - Gestion des flux d’information
3 - Management of the information flow
BETTINA KNAUP (modératrice / moderator)
Cultural Producer for the LAB
Bettina Knaup is a cultural producer with a background in political science, theatre, film, TV
studies and gender studies. She has been involved in developing and/or managing a range of
interdisciplinary and transnational cultural projects operating at the interface of arts, politics and
knowledge production. These include the open space of the International Women's University
(Hanover) and the trans-disciplinary Performing Arts Laboratory, IN TRANSIT (Berlin). For the
past three years, she has co-curated and co-produced the International Festival of Contemporary
Arts, CITY OF WOMEN, Ljubljana. As LAB manager, Bettina oversees the development and
production of the LAB project. The LAB ultimately aims to enhance cultural cooperation and
intercultural dialogue in the broader Europe by providing a (web based) platform for information
distribution, knowledge production and exchange for artists and practitioners, as well as for
journalists and policy makers across the broader Europe.
DON FORESTA (Speaker)
Researcher artist / Théoricien de l’art multémedia
CV présenté dans la session plénière
MICHEL G. WESSELING (Speaker)
Head of Library and IT Services at the Institute of Social Studies Den Haag / Free lance
consultant and Technical Advisor to the LAB project.
CV présenté dans la session plénière
HANS NISSENS (Speaker)
Ingenieur / engineer
Born July 15th 1973. Studies: University Leuven & Ghent/ Civil engineer/ Faculty of Engineering,
department of Civil Engineering
1999-2001: INGENIUM - Engineering firm - data and telecommunication & telematics
- Phone and data networks Fiber Optics – City Bruges
- Masterplan ICT – City Bruges, Belgium
- Ticket and information platform, Province West-Flanders, Belgium
- Call-Center Cultural information, Province West-Flanders, Belgium
- Inventory of cultural databases in Belgium
2002- : CultuurNet Vlaanderen - Flemish Culture Communication Centre/ Project Coordination
CultuurDatabank:
- Project management
- Technical design applications
- Content processing
- Cultural exchange format
- Partnerships
- Marketing & communication
70
BORIS RAZON (speaker)
Rédacteur en chef du Monde.fr
Né en 1975. Ancien élève de l'école normale supérieure de Fontenay-Saint-Cloud. Dea d'histoire
sur la mémoire des Brigades Internationales. 1936-1996. Actuellement en thèse sur le même
sujet. Cofondateur et directeur de la publication du magazine Don Quichotte, magazine
d'information et d'opinion français. Après l'échec du magazine au printemps 2000, je suis entré
au Monde Interactif à la fin de l'année. J'en suis le rédacteur en chef depuis juillet 2002.
Angle de l'intervention :
Un site d'information en ligne est plus que tout autre confronté aux flux d'informations de tous
types et de toutes provenances. Dépêches d'agences, photos, vidéos, liens, documents,
rapports, articles, communiqués de presse, tout afflue à grande vitesse vers une rédaction en
ligne. Ces flux multiples posent la question du statut du journaliste : de producteur d'information,
il doit se muer en sélecteur et scénographe, capable de trier et de mettre en scène de manière à
donner du sens - à restituer l'importance et la hiérarchie - de ces informations.
ALEKSANDRA UZELAC (observatrice / observator)
Senior Research - Institute for International Relations Zagreb
Aleksandra Uzelac is a research fellow at the Culture and Communication Department of the
Institute for International Relations in Zagreb (www.imo.hr). She holds PhD in Information
Sciences of the University of Zagreb. Her interests include impact of ICT on cultural issues, virtual
networks, organisation of knowledge in the cultural field and issues of public domain and cultural
heritage. She is a member of the Culturelink Network team (www.culturelink.org) and the
Culturelink review editorial board. She is one of the contributors in the book eCulture: The
European Perspective: Cultural Policy, Creative Industries, Information Lag that has been
published jointly by Culturelink and CIRCLE in 2005. In 2000 she was initiator of the CultureNet
Croatia (www.culturenet.hr) web portal and she is a member of the steering board for the portal
development.
Article publié:
“Cultural Networks and Cultural Portals – is there a difference?”
Aleksandra Uzelac, Institute for International Relations, Zagreb, [email protected]
Summary
The paper looks at the differences between cultural networks and portals and it evaluates
the CultureNet Croatia Portal showing possible different networking structures that define in
which direction such project can develop.
Introduction
Eugene Tacher asked a question: are we connected because we are collective, or are we
collective because we are connected? (Tacher, Networks, Swarms, Multitudes,
www.ctheory.net/text_file.asp?pick=422) Tacher differentiate between 3 different kinds of
networked structures: technical infrastructure networks – such as Internet; biological
networks – such as swarms; multitudes – such as global political movements. We are also
aware of existence of numerous organisational networks – such as many existing sectorial
or thematical associations or networks. Some of these structures are simply connecting us
to some resource and some are transforming members into a collective. Their
characteristics are not the same, but their differences ae sometimes blurred with different
uses of term network in terminology related to the network society.
71
ICT networking environment has enabled development of many on-line resources and
cultural sector has gone virtual (and networked) a decade ago. Digitalisation of existing
cultural goods, e-born cultural goods and documents and their accessibility through the
Internet network present a new context that cultural institutions must take into account in
the information society. This new context defined by digitalisation and network
infrastructure affects the way the cultural sector operates, and opens new possibilities for
the distribution and consumption of cultural goods. The new ways of communication and
knowledge organisation in the networked environment are result of the trend of digitisation
and technological convergence - merging of the computer industry, communications,
broadcasting and publishing that enabled fast and easy way of information storage,
reproduction and distribution of information. So, has cultural sector started with new
networked practices? Are they realy interconnected, thus forming a networked collective, or
maybe not?
Cultural Networks – Real and Virtual
In the 1990es cultural networks became popular organisational infrastructure in the cultural
sector in Europe. In the discussion paper on Evaluation Criteria for Cultural Networks in
Europe networks have been referred at as a 'communication infrastructure for European
cultural cooperation' (DeVlieg, Evaluation Criteria for Cultural Networks in Europe,
www.efah.org/en/resources_for_culture/networking/evaluationnetworksma.pdf). In their
evaluation of existing European cultural networks, Minichbauer and Mitterdorfer define
term cultural network as 'a structure and work method characterized by non-hierarchical,
horizontal cooperation, a transnational orientation, establishment by the grass roots, a nonrepresentational character, diversity and the absence of the powerful central forces'
(Raimund Minichbauer and Elke Mitterdorfer. European Cultural Networks and Networking
in
Central
and
Eastern
Europe,
eiPCP,
2000,
http://www.eipcp.net/studien/s01/ecn_en1.pdf). They consider that minimum requirements
for cultural networks are that they are designed for a long-term cooperation, the existence
of a common goal, the existence of members, and their physical meetings. Different
authors also add to these minimum requirements: loosely defined network borders,
voluntary participation of members and redundant structure that can continue functioning if
a particular member decides to leave network.
The reason for popularity of networks as a cultural cooperation infrastructure can be found
in fact that they try to enable flexible ways of cooperation, they try to solve concrete
problems that members are facing, they bring together people in common pursuit of
interest, that through them existing institutions can be bonded together around common
projects, and they provide efficient communication channels for their members.
Communication is important aspect of networks success. Reliability of information received
through the network channels and possibility to communicate with fellow members are
crucial for efficient functioning of networks. In the situation of the information overflow it is
not necessary easy to communicate ones information through existing public channels, and
networks and networks' focus towards particular themes of types of members enable
efficient filtering mechanisms that enable members access to relevant and reliable
information. Quick and simple on-line communication can enhance communication and
exchange of information among network members. The new information technology
paradigm, as an underpinning material base of information/networked society that Castells
describes, has enabled spreading of a network models and virtual networks in particular. Its
main elements - information as its basic element or raw material, networking logic, flexibility
– are also basic characteristics of cultural networks, and many existing cultural networks
have gone virtual in order to raise effectiveness of their functioning.
As Internet has became a basic information infrastructure in all developed countries
different virtual networks and portals have became a part of virtual landscape in the cultural
sector. Looking at some existing virtual networks in the cultural field we can see that they
either started from existing members base of real cultural networks and have than
extended their activities in the virtual domain, or they started with objectives of providing
72
infrastructure to cultural organisations and end users that first must be motivated to
cooperate, such as is in a case with many existing CultureNets and portals. But in most
cases they are trying to balance technological base with communication and information
elements trying to provide to their members and/or potential users services that they need.
Cultural networks, as well as communication networks enable access to their
members/users, and combining them into virtual networks is an attempt to provide structure
for professional virtual communities in cultural sector. When existing cultural networks
create their virtual versions it could be somewhat easier to achieve building virtual
communities, but if attempt is made to build it from scratch the process is a bit more difficult
as a motivation and trust that exists among network members has to be built from scratch
as well. Numerous discussion forums, mailing lists, and specialised portals are created with
such aims. Their effectiveness depends on members’ interest and motivation as well as on
their goals and its underlying networking structure. Today we witness proliferation of
51
numerous portals and a question is - can we consider them to be virtual networks, in a
sense described above, i.e. as a structure supporting cultural cooperation?
Cultural Portals – a new infrastructure for a cultural sector
An issue that is relevant to both cultural institutions, as providers of content, and to users is
how to ensure that users reach the content that is available on-line. Strategies for attention
getting and filtering are important elements in developing any e-culture service. On-line
search engines, e-newsletters, specialised portals and virtual networks are existing
mechanisms through which users are receiving information that interest them. Thematical
portals, networks and newsletters are considered important due to their attempt to
introduce a ‘quality control’ of available information, i.e. to channel relevant information
only.
For a cultural Internet site it is important to what Internet servers, portals or gateways it is
linked to. Commercial portal, cultural portal, educational portal, tourist oriented portal,
regional or city portal, etc. bring special user groups to a cultural site. If the portal answers
the needs of the user group it is more popular and more effective. Its management should
include the strategy of adequate context for it – which must include well developed
communication strategy linking its resources with its users and content providers. In the
ever increasing commercialization of Internet, cultural strategies of different European
countries have recognised the importance of ensuring a public infrastructure for accessing
existing cultural Internet sites. In the last decade the concept of ‘culturenet’ - on-line, free,
52
public access to information about cultural resources and activities - was formed in the
context of rapidly changing technological, economic and social circumstances. Culturenets
have tried to cater for the needs of cultural professionals, as well as for the wider public
interested in culture and culture related issues. Their role in the 90ies was not just to
provide easy access to the existing cultural sites but also very much to assist in
development of on-line cultural resources and common standards. Today, in addition to
search engines, different cultural portals are main gateways between creators and
consumers of cultural products available on the Internet network.
51
Cultural portals or gateways are defined as centrally coordinated web based gateways which
offer access to accredited websites, with limited original content or other resources available at
the gateway site. (Digicult Report pp 56.)
52
definition from Evaluation report on CultureNet Sweden, 1999
73
Example of CultureNet Croatia
I will breafly describe development of the CultureNet Croatia portal and its services in order
to evaluate its networking structure – present and possible future one.
In 2001, Croatian Ministry of Culture and Open Society Institute - Croatia have jointly
established CultureNet Croatia web portal. The mission of the CultureNet Croatia was to
strengthen the cultural sector in Croatia by creating a common virtual cultural platform, and
providing tools for sharing information using new technologies, as well as ensuring active
participation of artists and general public and their interaction - i.e. building links or
connections, as well as community or collective. The project main aims were set to be
enabling easy access to all cultural virtual resources in Croatia through a single entry point;
promoting diverse issues of culture and technology; and enabling cultural professionals to
find information of their interest and to find cooperation partners for their projects. It was
intended for Croatian artists and cultural professionals and general public, as well as for the
foreign visitors searching for the information regarding Croatian culture.
The context in which Culturenet Croatia started its development was one of rather scarce
web resources in the cultural sector. In 2001 most cultural institutions that had web pages,
had often only basic information available, on static web pages that were not frequently
updated and in most cases cultural institutions did not provide any newly developed virtual
services or products. There existed several sectorial referral points on the Internet, such as
MDC – Museum Documentation Centre, Croatian Centre of ITI or Music Information
Centre, providing information about museums, theatre or music within the scope of their
interest, but for many cultural sectors such information infrastructure was not existent. So
the first task of the CultureNet Croatia included mapping a Croatian cultural sector
(including institutions that were not necessary present on-line), and providing a
communication mechanism through which cultural professionals could easily announce and
disseminate news and information. As there were no systematic intersectoral referral
information already developed, this seamed to be an adequate starting point for the project.
The portal started functioning in July 2001 as an experimental work in progress version,
reachable at www.culturenet.hr. As the main goal of this version of the web site was to
inform the public about the project and to give a hint of what it should become, the objective
was to find an adequate solution that will be cost effective, easy manageable and quickly
achievable.
The portal opened with the following services:
- Database of Croatian cultural institutions (providing links to their websites in case they
have them)
- Calendar of cultural events in Croatia (linking to the existent websites)
- Information about European and international foundations and networks also with
links to their websites
The described services have been result of the task of mapping a Croatian cultural sector.
In the second version of the portal that opened in summer 2002, apart from some other
new joint information services, the information and news section has been developed
through which users were able to disseminate different news and information. This news
segment was named Info-service and it greatly contributed to the portal’s dynamics, as
news was posted there daily.
The described services are focused mostly on providing structural information to the users
(i.e. it fulfilled a function of a subject oriented gateway), and not so much to provide users
with possibility to communicate among themselves directly. The mentioned segments,
except Info-service, present mostly static information and do not provide for dynamic
information flow on the portal. Still as content of the portal is oriented towards current
74
cultural activities organised by cultural professionals (i.e. target users of the portal), portal
must rely on communication with the users as main content providers.
The main challenge that Culturenet Croatia had to face was to build a community of
interested users that will regularly use the portal and be interested in placing information
about their work through it. Efforts were made to identify the strongest institutions or
associations in different cultural sectors that were the serving as information disseminators.
The existing professional associations were notified about the project and invited to
cooperate. They were offered possibility to start their mailing lists through the portal. The
information that was disseminated through different specific mailing lists was also available
through Info-service segment of the portal and portal’s daily newsletter, thus it could reach
wider audience that extended a narrow circle of associations’ members, and as portal
archives its news it provided archive for news published by them as well.
Although initial plans included wider range of information services, limited human and
financial resources hampered portal’s faster development. Also, as portal provides for only
a limited interactivity in certain segments, updating is a task of a portal staff and this
imposes limits on the capacities for updating information and developing new projects.
CultureNet Croatia's name sugests that it is a kind of a cultural network, but is it realy? We
shall try to find that out in the evaluation of the CultureNet Croatia project and its network
structure.
Evaluating CultureNet Croatia networking structure
So far the developed services of the portal can be analyzed through several phases.
Providing referral information services ensured creating an interdisciplinary cultural subject
oriented gateway, accessible in the Internet network environment. Its initial model could be
53
described by the following picture .
According to Paul Starkey this model is not considered
to be a real network, but a service for information
dissemination as it does not provide for reciprocity of
communication (from end users to the ‘network’
secretariat/centre. At the very beginning, by
establishing its initial services, such as Catalogue of
cultural institutions, calendar of cultural events,
database of foundations etc., Culturenet Croatia has
provided its users with such a communication model,
i.e. a broadcasting model (which is a model that
portals aimed at general audience are using). This
network model does not prompt users for participation
in sharing content, but just in using it.
In the second phase CultureNet Croatia has changed
its networking model to the one that allows for easier communication of the end users with
the network secretariat by enabling them to use the portal to disseminate their information
through Info-service and daily mailing list.
53
Paul Starkey has described a several network models in his book Networking for development, 1999,
IFRTD. The ilustrations used are borrowed from his work.
75
The second described model has increased
possibilities for information exchange through the
portal and this was proven true as the portal use has
grown significantly after starting the Info-service
54
segment . Both models have provided users of the
portal with possibility for connecting, but, still, this level
does not really provide structural possibilities for
forming virtual communities, i.e. transforming users
into a community or ‘a collective’, as its main purpose
is informing users of relevant news through
established information services.
The second model presents the present phase of
CultureNet Croatia portal structure. In order to
transform existing networking model towards model of previously described cultural
networks (as platform for cultural cooperation) portal should be able to generarate genuine
cooperation among some of its members as a result of its own activities. The model below
illustrates the situation where network secretariat just facilitates members’ joint activities
and cooperation projects (as is the case with previously described cultural networks).
This claim cannot be made for CultureNet
Croatia portal. Even as its mission envisioned
strengthening the cultural sector in Croatia by
creating a common virtual cultural platform, as
well as ensuring active participation of artists
and general public and their interaction, it is not
to be expected that the portal with no specific
narrow focus, but covering different cultural
sectors and topics, will generate vibrant
community of dedicated members with a strong
commitment towards portal’s topics and
common projects. The strategy needs to be
directed towards building sustainable relations
with cultural professionals as providers and
users of the portal services and providing those kinds of information services presently
55
lacking in cultural sector.
So far, all activities on the portal were limited to mapping resources and sharing
information. But in the four years of the portal functioning, its surrounding context has
54
Today portal has generated steady number of users and it generates some 6000 visits per month.
Although this is not a big number in comparison with commercial portals aimed at general audiences, for
Croatian cultural sector this is not an insignificant number. Some 2000 users are subscribed to the portal
daily mailing list, 6000 for a newslettter, and informaton for inclusion in portal Info-service continuously
comes in from users of the portal.
55
One possible strategy of portal’s future development could be oriented towards building a
systematic information infrastructure that would support cultural research (particularly research in
the field of cultural policies or ECulture in Croatia). Thus portal would bridge the existing gap in
this kind of information and target the more specific category of users – cultural researchers and
policy makers, that in Croatia do not have a hub catering for their information needs. Such
services would contribute to creating a common virtual cultural platform that portal’s mission
envisioned, but more in a sense of building knowledge infrastructure for cultural sector than
actual virtual community with dedicated members. This line of development would still fit with the
second described model.
76
changed. While in the beginning Culturenet has tried to map Croatian cultural sector in the
situation of few web resources, in 2003 and 2004 situation has changed and today other
thematical portals in culture exist and number of cultural institutions with own webpages
has grown. Network structure implies decentralisation and if in the beginning it was
necessary to build a referral point and gateway through which Croatian cultural resources
would be mapped at one referral point, today this is not enough. Networked cooperation in
everyday activities of cultural institutions in Croatia is not so much present, so building
virtual projects in cooperation with other partners still presents a challenge. If the portal
would have resources to develop activities that would not be based on a simple information
exchange but would initiate actual projects in cooperation with other cultural institutions in
the filed of culture jet another network model could be developed - the model based on
decentralisation.
This model of networking could be suitable for
both
different
communities
and
their
cooperation activities in different related sub
areas (museums, libraries, theatre, cultural
tourism, etc.), for establishing cooperation with
existing thematical portals, as well as for
developing different
cooperative virtual
projects. For engaging in cooperative virtual
projects different
partners should be
recognised, resources should be offered to
them and planed services should be designed
in close cooperation with them. This model
could work only if it represents a true
partnership between all involved.
Concluding remarks
Blurred use of the term network can put expectations on the project that it in fact cannot
fulfill just by building informational infrastructure. The four years of functioning of the
CultureNet Croatia has contributed to better information flow in cultural sector and has
succeeded in enhancing communication between cultural professionals and interested
public as well. The project has fulfilled the gap that existed in Croatia in developing the
systematic information infrastructure in the cultural field on a national level and in building
services that facilitates information exchange among cultural professionals.
Although initial expectations stated also that it should contribute to enhancing the use of the
Internet tools by cultural professionals and sharing experiences and knowledge in the field
of application of information technologies and Internet in cultural field, any advances in this
respect could not be contributed to the CultureNet Croatia activities, nor it contributed to the
further development of virtual culture or to promoting network cooperation in the cultural
sector. Today this project faces a new challenge. It can either continue providing a
communication channel for announcing different news and current happenings and
mapping existing cultural resources, or it can opt for change towards decentralised model
that would try to embody a real cooperative network in the field of eCulture in Croatia.
It is clear that cultural networks that were described above rely on more than on the
networked information infrastructure; they have a common goal, common projects and
members that are participating voluntarily. They are not only structure, but a work-method
as well. If CultureNet Croatia hopes to transform itself into decentralised network it must
recognise specific needs of specific groups of users/members and design different services
based on their actual needs. Just to say that it is aimed at cultural professionals is not
77
specific enough and recognising different groups of partners/users, their needs and
possible joint projects is a starting base for a successful design of a real network.
It is important to keep in mind that different networking structures that were described in
this paper have an important effect on what kind of network will be built – the one that is
simply connecting users to a certain resource, or one that is building a kind of ‘a collective’
or community. By providing a services that would correspond to the information
dissemination model one cannot hope to achieve building a model that correspond to
cooperative cultural networks i.e. the third or fourth mentioned models. Today the
discussion is going on in Europe on how to ensure better coordination and cooperation
among the existing cultural networks and portals in the virtual sphere. This question of how
to efficiently cooperate among different virtual projects still remains without a definite
answer, but being aware of the underlying networking structures of different existing virtual
structures that are attempting to cooperate might help in building some sustainable
cooperative networking structures.
References
Castells, Manuel. The Information Age: Economy Society and Culture. Vol. 1 The Rise of
the Network Society, Blackwell 1996.
DeVlieg, Marianne. Evaluation Criteria for Cultural Networks in Europe,
www.efah.org/en/resources_for_culture/networking/evaluationnetworksma.pdf
Hargittai, Eszter. Open Portals or Closed Gates, www.princeton.edu/˜eszter/portals.html
Helland Hauge, Jostein; Hedstrom, Margaret; Mallen, George. Evaluation report on
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Minichbauer, Raimund i Mitterdorfer, Elke. European Cultural Networks and Networking in
Central and Eastern Europe, eiPCP, 2000, http://www.eipcp.net/studien/s01/ecn_en1.pdf
Pehn, Gudrun. Networking culture - The role of European cultural networks, Council of
Europe, 1999
Starkey, Paul. Networking for development, IFRTD, 1999.
Tacher, Eugene. Networks, Swarms, Multitudes, www.ctheory.net/text_file.asp?pick=422
The DigiCult Report: - Technological landscapes for tomorrow cultural economy: Unlocking
the value of cultural heritage, ur. Andrea Mulrenin, Luxembourg, European Commision,
2002.
Uzelac, Aleksandra. Prijedlog uspostave virtualnog centra za kulturne informacije
CultureNet Croatia www.culturenet.hr/v1/novo/oprojektu/temeljnidokument.asp
www.culturenet.hr
78
4 - Enrichir l’expérience
4 - Enriching the experience
MARY ANN DE VLIEG (modératrice / moderator)
Secretary General of IETM
In the cultural sector for 30 years, she has held various posts in the USA and Europe ; the
majority of her work has been in the performing arts (creation, production, diffusion) in an
international context, with special emphasis also on policy, multicultural practices and
professional training. Currently the Secretary General of IETM (Informal European Theatre
Meeting - since 1994) ; is a founder and the Treasurer of the Roberto Cimetta Fund for Mobility
of Mediterranean Artists and Operators, and founder of www.on-the-move.org , a mobility portal
for the arts. On the Executive Committee of the European Forum of the Arts and Heritage
(EFAH) 1995, currently Vice-President;. Advisory Committees include Fondazione Fitzcarraldo
(Torino), FEMEC (Forum of Euro-Mediterranean Cultures) and the Forum Cultural Mundial, Sao
Paolo 2004. She has an M.A. in European Cultural Policy and Mangement from the University of
Warwick, GB.
MYRIAM DIOCARETZ (observatrice / observator)
Senior Researcher, European Centre for Digital Communication Communication/Infonomics/ The
Netherlands
CV présenté dans la session plénière
JANE FINNIS (speaker)
Director of the 24 Hour Museum www.24hourmuseum.org.uk / responsible for overall
management and development.
The 24 Hour Museum publishes daily arts/museum news, exhibition reviews and in-depth trails. It
promotes non-profit U.K. museums, galleries, and heritage attractions (more than 3,400 on its
database) and seeks to engage audiences with U.K. culture. It is one of the most successful
cultural Web sites in the U.K. and attracts more than 500,000 visitors each month. In 2005, its
children's site, www.show.me.uk, was shortlisted for both Webby and BAFTA awards. Currently,
a series of RSS cultural newsfeeds are in development.
Jane has worked extensively across the arts, education and creative industry sectors and is
interested in how online technologies create new ways of working creatively. She is also a
founder member of the culture.mondo international steering committee www.culturemondo.org
She joined 24 Hour Museum in 2001 from Lighthouse Arts and Training in Brighton where she
worked as Director for 10 years. Her background is in independent video production after
graduating with an Arts Degree in 1987.
STEPHANE NATKIN (speaker)
Professeur universitaire, chercheur et expert
CV présenté dans la session plénière
79
SZAKÁTS ISTVÁN (speaker)
New media Artist
Cluj-Napoca, Romania, born in 1968
Professional experience:
- New media artist / broadcast and graphic designer / video director, author of over 200 short
films, documentaries, music videos, TV openers, promos and commercials
- Executive President of the AltArt Foundation, Cluj, Romania, 1998- CEO of Novosapiens Ltd., 1999- Lecturer on “Interactive Television” at TV, Media and Cinematography Faculty, Babes-Bolyai
University, Cluj, Romania, 2004- Lecturer on “Computer Image Processing” at the Television Faculty of the Sapientia University,
Cluj, Romania, 2003-2004
University degrees:
- B.A. in Photography, Video Film and Computer Image Processing, University of Art and Design,
Cluj, Romania, 2003
- M.A. in Computer Science, Mathematics and Informatics Faculty of the Babes-Bolyai University
of Cluj, Romania, 1992
SANNA KANGASLUOMA (speaker)
Performing arts producer
She is a Finnish performing arts producer researching the use of online communications by arts
organizations. She has a decade long working experience in arts and the cultural field as
Executive Producer (Helsinki City Theatre), project coordinator for special exhibitions and
international events, information and marketing manager, and tour administrator.
Ms. Kangasluoma studied literature, communications, art history and theatre.
Article présenté:
“Interface to art.”
Eloquence and rhetoric strategies of theatres and museums on the Web.
ABSTRACT
Arts institutions' websites — and actually arts institutions themselves — can be considered
as interfaces to art and culture that organize data (i.e. art or information about art) and
structure user's experience of this data. They are like information processing systems or
software that allow a certain way of accessing artistic products and demand for certain
cognitive techniques to understand and interpret art (Manovich 2001b).
I have examined on 11 theatre or museum webpages the main arguments for consuming
art, the way the arguments are composed and the web related technological means they
are presented by. These elements form what I call the rhetoric strategy of a website.
The rhetoric strategy shapes users' perceptions of the purpose and the function of a
website and thus those of the arts institution itself. More importantly, the strategy in use has
significant implications for what forms and genres of art are accessible and to whom — for
who consumes art and why, what kind of art is consumed in general. Even if the medium of
the world wide web is said to be open and equal to all regardless of background, the
rhetoric of an interface is aimed to a particular interpretive community whose shared
conceptual and ideological grounds take priority in arranging, presenting and understanding
of topical material on a website. Thus internet, as an information and communication
80
medium, does not necessarily reduce the differences of accessibility to art for different
people.
Unfolding the rhetoric strategy allows us to better discern underlying cultural discourses
and implicit genres on the www-pages. This has an important effect on how art is seen,
experienced and understood generally — on the notion of art — which in turn affects the
artistic creation and the quality of arts produced and distributed by institutions.
I found four different rhetoric strategies that arts institutions use on the internet to legitimize
their voices and get acceptance to their message. It should be emphasized that I examined
web pages purely from a user's perspective, and the following strategies I found may not be
consciously created as such by arts institutions – they might even deny some aspects that
nevertheless are evident for a user.
First, the temple strategy is strongly anchored to the authoritarian and powerful status of an
arts organization in the society. The web pages that use this strategy suggest for the user
either the logic of a database (a lot of separate “raw” information available without much
intertextuality) or a representation of the physical institution and its collection or its
programmation (pictures and titles referring to the building, the exhibitions, the shows and
the galleries). The temple pages also resemble a determinate statical space.
Second, the shop front strategy or the display windows appear authentic because of
abundant demonstrations of products on offer at the arts institutions. Frequent use of
multimedia allows people to examine comfortable and desirable aspects of the products as
if they were fingering things and turning them over and around at a department store. The
shop front strategy uses trends and fashions, media topics and stars when trying to stop
and seduce potential consumers who are passing by and doing "artistic" window shopping.
Third, the box office strategy is a display window or a temple strategy turned into an
instrument for self service and electronic commerce. The focus is on selling tickets and/or
products online. The rhetoric pleads for the easyness to access to arts consumption and to
arts institutions. These sites are very operational, users can experience them as interactive
and user friendly online services to do business with. Nevertheless, on box office pages art
or an artistic event is mostly contextualized as a ticket (sold) — encouraging to consume
art as a one-off, disposable event.
The fourth strategy is that of a virtual arts institution, or a strategy of virtualization. These
websites present contents that cannot be acquired merely by a common visit to a theatre or
a museum but that create a support for a wider and longer process than a singular visit to
an arts event. Thus a virtual arts institution’s website becomes an interface to an
“augmented” museum or theatre, like a digital medium or a tool between the viewer and the
object thanks to which we can see, understand and experience more. Instead of building on
high culture concepts, authoritarian status or consumerist discourse, a virtual arts
institution’s rhetoric on the Web leans mainly on media culture as the commonplace for the
audience – on the ubiquitous mediation and its influence to the understanding and
interpretation of our experiences.
81
PROJETS PRESENTEES LORS DU COLLOQUE
PROJECTS PRESENTED DURING THE CONFERENCE
- CONSEIL EUROPE Website of the NIT project:
http://www.coe.int/T/E/Cultural_Co-operation/culture/Completed_projects/NIT/
Publications of the NIT project
http://www.coe.int/T/E/Cultural_Co-operation/Culture/Resources/Publications/#P381_8877
Declaration on a European Policy for New Information Technologies adopted by the Committee of
Ministers on 7 May 1999:
http://cm.coe.int/ta/decl/1999/99dec3.htm
Guidelines:
http://www.coe.int/T/E/Cultural_Co-operation/Culture/Resources/Texts/#P75_2217
There is no direct follow-up within the cultural sector. However, the topic of the NIT was taken up
in the context of the Council of Europe's Integrated Project "Making democratic institutions work"
(2002-2004) which studied, inter alia, the democratic potential of the information society, looking
at issues such as e-voting and e-government. The follow-up project of that one is “Good
Governance in the Information Society” (2005-2007). It focuses on how new information and
communication technologies (ICT) affect the practice of democracy, human rights and the rule of
law in Council of Europe member states. Recently, they issued a declaration in this sense:
http://www.coe.int/t/e/integrated_projects/democracy/02_Activities/00_Declaration_on_Informatio
n_Society/
- UNION EUROPEENNE –
Minerva- Programme
The Minerva Action seeks to promote European co-operation in the field of Open and Distance
Learning (ODL) and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education.
The Action has three main objectives, (1) to promote understanding among teachers, learners,
decision-makers and the public at large of the implications of the use of ICT in education, as well
as the critical and responsible use of ICT for educational purposes; (2) to ensure that pedagogical
considerations are given proper weight in the development of ICT and multimedia-based
educational products and services; and (3) to promote access to improved methods and
educational resources as well as to results and best practices in this field.
http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/socrates/minerva/ind1a.html
82
- LAB (LABORATORY OF EUROPEAN CULTURAL COOPERATION) and G2CC LAB : http://www.eurocult.org/lab/
What is the LAB?
- A platform for knowledge sharing
- A federating and networking tool
- A Web portal to European Cultural Cooperation
Initiated by the European Cultural Foundation in early 2004, the Laboratory of European Cultural
Cooperation (The LAB) aims to be a tool that provides useful information for artists, cultural
operators and practitioners for sharing information, monitoring trends, commissioning research
and innovative schemes to encourage cross border cultural cooperation in an expanding Europe.
The Gateway to Cultural Cooperation (G2CC) as a start-up phase of the Portal
What is the G2CC?
- An experimental first step in developing the Portal
- A federating model of cooperation
Within the LAB, the G2CC project is a crucial part of the initial phase to develop a web portal on
European cultural cooperation. The multilingual portal will deliver a practical service to artists,
cultural practitioners, researchers and policy makers and will facilitate information exchange on a
vast number of topics related to European cultural cooperation. The G2CC forms a core of the
portal's development and provides the first steps for its central content.
Funded by the European Union – Directorate General Culture and Education, the G2CC project's
co-organisers are ERICarts Institute www.ericarts.org, European Cultural Foundation/Laboratory
of European Cultural Cooperation www.eurocult.org/lab/, Fitzcarraldo Foundation
www.fitzcarraldo.it/en/, and On-the-Move Association www.on-the-move.org.
What are the Objectives of the Portal?
- To create a single point of access to information on European cultural cooperation
- To encourage interaction between users
- To provide networking and partnership opportunities
- To be an interactive tool for cooperation
The Portal aims at providing analysis on cultural cooperation and increasing access to
information and services for artists, cultural operators and stakeholders.
It has a clear focus on cross-border and transnational cooperation, encouraging cultural
professionals in Europe to share knowledge and experience.
At a later stage, it will become gradually a dynamic and interactive tool for cooperation.
What are the Portal’s main features?
- Multilingual search capability and content
- Presentation of the main players in European cultural cooperation
- Information on mobility and funding/financial opportunities for the arts and culture
- Case studies of European cultural cooperation projects
- Critical news and editorials and policy analysis
83
Future interactive features:
- Careers in art and culture
- Training opportunities
- Forum and community spaces for reflection
- Consultation with experts on funding or legal issues
(1) Information analysis and disseminationto help cultural operators to understand the current state of European cultural cooperation, to
outline problems and solutions in this field and produce recommendations to policy makers and
tools for practitioners.
(2) Synergy of existing information resourcesThe Portal will act as a main point of entrance to the field of European cultural cooperation and its
players.
The Portal will provide access to various types of organizations (funding bodies, cultural networks
and observatories, resource and information centres, databases, and regional and national
organizations) dealing with cross-border cooperation, through a search facility.
This aspect of the G2CC-project will be especially useful to ‘newcomers’, emerging artists and
operators, particularly those who are setting up and running cross-border cooperation projects. It
will be an important tool in the promotion of trans-boarder and intercultural dialogue.
The public launch of the Portal is expected in spring 2006
Contact:
For more information and regular updates on the LAB, contact the LAB’s office on the details
below and visit www.eurocult.org
Email: [email protected]
The LAB
Roemer Visscherstraat 18-1 T: 0031 20 4121017
1054 EX Amsterdam F: 0031 20 4122468
The Netherlands
- ICHIM ICHIM - International Cultural Heritage Informatics Meeting - was founded in 1991 by David
Bearman, former Deputy Director of the Smithsonian Institution Office of Information Resource
Management and since 2003 yearly conferences bringing together experts in the field of cultural
heritage and informatics.
ICHIM 05 Digital Culture and Heritage will address issues of technology and culture: from policy
to evaluation, from design through creation, management, development, research and
application.
In 2005, all cultural sectors will be engaged: museums, libraries, archives, archeological
monuments and sites, documentary, sound, photographic or audiovisual productions, photo
libraries, publishers and the press, television, radio, cinema, electronic publications, video games,
live performances, exhibitions and of course, the World Wide Web.
For more information: www.ichim.org
84
- RESEAU MARCEL MARCEL est un réseau haut débit permanent et interactif, et un site web portail dédié à
l'expérimentation artistique, pédagogique et culturelle, à l'échange art science, et à la
collaboration art industrie.
Un site portail Art/Science/Industrie http://www.mmmarcel.org
Lors de la première rencontre de Souillac en Juillet 1997, un groupe d'experts internationaux en
art et nouvelles technologies a souligné l'importance de l'art comme instrument de recherche
pour le développement des réseaux de télécommunication, plus particulièrement pour le
développement d'un réseau permanent à haut débit. Ces experts conclurent qu'une étroite
collaboration entre artistes et laboratoires de recherches universitaires ou privés en
télécommunications serait nécessaire à l’élaboration de ce réseau.
Lors de la deuxième rencontre de Souillac, l'année suivante, la construction d'un site portail pour
la gestion et coordination du réseau fut decidée. MARCEL était né.
La construction du réseau et du site MARCEL fut commencée au "Fresnoy - Studio National des
Arts Contemporains" près de Lille. Elle continue aujourd'hui en collaboration avec la "Wimbledon
School of Art" de Londres, " The Public" de West Bromwich et un nombre important d'institutions
en Europe et en Amérique du Nord.
Depuis sa création, le site portail n'a cessé d'être améliorée. Afin de mieux répondre aux besoins
identifiés au cours des rencontres de Souillac, de nouvelles catégories furent ajoutées tandis que
les catégories existantes furent modifiées. Aujourd'hui le site portail est accessible aux
institutions membres de MARCEL sous forme de prototype et continue à être développé.
L'objectif général du projet MARCEL est d'occuper l'espace du réseau des point de vues
artistiques et culturels, ainsi que l'éducation. Il est aussi de participer à ses futures définitions.
Cet objectif est traduit par le programme suivant :
- promouvoir expérimentations et collaborations artistiques dans toutes les formes d'art interactif,
- promouvoir les échanges philosophiques entre art et science
- développer le potentiel du réseau en tant qu'outil d'éducation
- étudier le réseau en tant que sujet pédagogique
- développer la coopération entre art et industrie
- participer au développement de l'expression culturelle sur le réseau.
Le moyen de réaliser cet objectif est, au travers de la création d'un réseau interactif large bande
d'artistes, d'institutions artistiques et culturelles impliquées dans les mêmes recherches et
expérimentations, de développer en lieu et place de centres de recherche séparés un système
interdépendant d'institutions et d'organisations dont les actions reflètent la structure
organisationnelle du réseau.
85
- CULTUURDATABANK - www.cultuurnet.be
CultuurNet Vlaanderen, le « Centre flamand pour la
Communication culturelle », a été fondé en juin 2001 sur
l’initiative du ministre de la Culture et est opérationnel
depuis janvier 2002.
La mission générale de CultuurNet Vlaanderen est de
contribuer à élargir et approfondir la participation
culturelle ainsi qu’à améliorer le positionnement social
de l’art et de la culture. Cette mission répond à la
volonté du gouvernement flamand de réduire autant que
possible les écarts entre l’offre et le public. CultuurNet
Vlaanderen s’attache essentiellement, dans ce contexte,
à la relation complexe entre l’offre et le public et plus
précisément à la communication culturelle et à la
médiation du public.
Le centre remplit cette mission de trois manières : en
soutenant, en conseillant et en encadrant le secteur
culturel dans son travail de communication et de
médiation du public, et ce, tant sur un plan individuel
que collectif ; en organisant des actions de
communication s’adressant directement au public ; en
développant un ensemble d’instruments de soutien,
notamment une base de données culturelle et un site
Internet culturel flamand.
Compte tenu de l’importance d’une approche intégrée,
CultuurNet Vlaanderen estime souhaitable de mener
ces différentes activités de front, en respectant toutefois
l’ordre des priorités suivant…
Sa première priorité est la base de données culturelle
CultuurDatabank
Le ministre et l’administration ont assigné comme
mission prioritaire à CultuurNet Vlaanderen la création
d’une base de données culturelle et d’un site Internet
culturel flamand. L’objectif de ce projet d’envergure est
aussi simple qu’ambitieux : il faut que toute personne
cherchant des renseignements (ou autres services)
culturels puisse les trouver instantanément et
facilement ; non seulement sur un site Internet novateur,
consacré à la culture en Flandre et réalisé par
CultuurNet Vlaanderen même, mais aussi sur de
nombreux autres sites et par de nombreux autres
canaux. Pour cela, il était indispensable de mettre sur
pied une base de données culturelle qui puisse servir de
source d’informations et de fournisseur de données de
référence pour ces différents canaux.
CultuurNet Vlaanderen,
Arenbergstraat 1d, 1000 Brussel.
[email protected]
tel 02/551.18.70
fax 02/551.18.99
CultuurNet Vlaanderen, Culture Net Flanders, was
set up by the Flemish Minister of Culture in June
2001 as ‘Vlaams Centrum voor
Cultuurcommunicatie’ (the Flemish Culture
Communication Centre). It has been operational
since January 2002.
The general mission of CultuurNet Vlaanderen is to
contribute to broadening and intensifying public
participation in the cultural life of the Flemish Region
and to achieving a better social positioning for art
and culture. This mission fits in with the Flemish
government’s ambition of levelling as far as possible
the thresholds between cultural provision and
potential audiences. In so doing CultuurNet
Vlaanderen focuses on the complex relationship
between provision and audience and more
specifically on cultural communication and audience
development.
CultuurNet Vlaanderen sets about its mission in
three different ways: by providing the cultural sector
with support, advice and accompaniment in its
public communication and audience development
work, on both an individual and collective basis; with
communication initiatives aimed directly at the
general public; and by developing an array of
support tools, and in particular a cultural database
and a Flanders culture site.
Given the importance of achieving an integrated
approach, CultuurNet Vlaanderen has decided to
pursue these different strands in parallel, albeit with
the following priority ranking...
It’s top priority is the Culture Database project
Developing a culture database and a Flanders
culture site has been defined as the priority task of
CultuurNet Vlaanderen by the minister and by the
administration. The objective of this extensive
project is at once simple and ambitious: to enable
anyone looking for cultural information (or other
services) needs to find them both quickly and
simply, on an innovative Flemish culture site
developed by CultuurNet Vlaanderen itself, but also
on many other sites and via many other channels. A
necessary prerequisite for this is the development of
a culture database as the source of information and
data supplier to these channels.
CultuurNet Vlaanderen,
Arenbergstraat 1d, 1000 Brussel.
[email protected]
tel 02/551.18.70
fax 02/551.18.99
86
- CULTURE MONDO Culture.mondo est un réseau non officiel qui vise à
encourager et à faciliter la communication entre les
responsables de la création, du développement et de
la mise à jour de portails culturels partout dans le
monde. Culture.mondo sert de passerelle aux portails
culturels et de centre d'expertise en matière de
ressources et de recherches.
Culture.mondo is an informal network that
encourages and facilitates communication amongst
experts responsible for creating, developing, and
maintaining cultural portals worldwide. The
Culture.mondo Web site provides a gateway to
cultural portals and a repository of resources and
research.
L'idée derrière la création de Culture.mondo, un
réseau de portails culturels, a surgi en juin 2004 lors
de la conférence Minerva-Ireland International
Digitization, à Dublin, durant laquelle plusieurs
organisateurs de portails culturels ont discuté des
défis et des pratiques exemplaires qu'ils ont en
commun. Un comité directeur international, appelé
Culture.mondo, a alors été convoqué. Il représente les
portails culturels de six pays.
The idea behind Culture.mondo, a network for
cultural portals, emerged in June 2004 at the
Minerva-Ireland
International
Digitization
Conference, in Dublin, where a number of cultural
portal authorities explored common challenges and
best practices. An international steering committee
was convened, working under the name of
Culture.mondo, representing cultural portals in six
countries.
Ce groupe a collaboré à l'élaboration du sondage
international en direct Culture.mondo, de même qu'à
la création de la Table ronde de Culture.mondo sur
les
portails
culturels
et
du
site
Web
Together, the group collaborated on the
development of the Culture.mondo International
Online Survey, the June 2005 Culture.mondo
Roundtable on Cultural Portals, and the web site
www.culturemondo.org
www.culturemondo.org
Première table ronde Culture.mondo (conduit à Aichi,
Japon en juin 2005) a porté sur diverses questions
concernant les défis et les pratiques exemplaires que
partagent les portails culturels du monde entier. De
plus, une série de sessions individuelles de table
ronde touchera : les résultats du tout premier sondage
mondial Culture.mondo auprès des portails culturels,
les partenariats, la gouvernance, la gestion des
contenus, la technologie, le marketing et les futures
orientations des portails culturels dans l’espace virtuel
mondial. Les questions de politiques pertinentes à
l’accès, à la visibilité et à la participation seront aussi
examinées.
The Roundtable on Cultural Portals held in June
2005 in Aichi, Japan, concentrated on different
aspects of issues concerning the challenges and
good practices shared by cultural portals throughout
the world. Additionally, a series of individual
Roundtable sessions were touched upon: results
from the first-ever worldwide Culture.mondo survey
of cultural portals, partnerships, governance,
content management, technology, marketing, and
future directions for cultural portals in the worldwide
digital space. Related policy issues including
access, visibility, and participation will also be
examined.
Le site web Culture.mondo est en ligne au
culturemondo.org. On y trouve des renseignements
sur le sondage international réalisé auprès de portails
culturels, des hyper liens vers les portails culturels qui
ont complété ce sondage ainsi que des informations
sur la Table ronde. Surveillez ce site pour toutes les
affaires culture.mondo à venir.
The Culture.mondo website
is online at
culturemondo.org. It currently holds material on the
international portal survey which gave a global
picture of current cultural portals and common
issues, hyperlinks to portals who responded to the
survey as well as Roundtable event information.
Look to it in the future for all Culture.mondo matters.
Secrétariat de la table ronde Culture.mondo
e
15, rue Eddy, 8 étage
Gatineau (QC)
Canada K1A 0M5
Tél. : +00 1 819 953.6989
Téléc. : +00 1 819 994.2410
Courriel : marie-noel_shank @ pch.gc.ca
Culture.mondo Roundtable Secretariat
15 Eddy, 8th floor
Gatineau, QC
Canada K1A 0M5
Tel: +00 1 819 953.6989
Fax: +00 1 819 994.2410
E-mail: [email protected]
87
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COORDINATION GENERALE
MARY-ANN DE VLIEG - for On-The-Move / IETM
Secretary General of IETM
CV présenté dans l’atelier 4
JEAN-LOUIS BONNIN – Ville de Nantes
Directeur Général à la Culture depuis 1995 – Maire : Jean-Marc Ayrault
Directeur des Affaires Culturelles de la Ville de Blois (maire : Jack Lang) de 1991 à 1995
Directeur du Centre Culturel de l’Albigeois (Scène Nationale) de 1986 à 1991
Responsable de la formation du Ministère de la Culture des cadres culturels (Association
Technique d’Action Culturelle – ATAC) de 1983 à 1986
- Secrétaire Général de la Maison de la Culture de la Rochelle de 1972 à 1983
- Maison de la Culture de Reims de 1971 à 1972
Il est par ailleurs codirecteur à l’Université de la Rochelle du DESS « Politiques Culturelles des
Villes » depuis 1999.
-
GEORGES-ALBERT KISFALUDI - for the City of Nantes
Professeur à l’Erban, Consultant International Media Consultants, Chercheur (ATEA)
Professeur des enseignements artistiques, spécialité culture numérique, multimédia et réseaux
interactifs, à l'Ecole Régionale des Beaux Arts de Nantes ; champ d'action pédagogique :
histoire/théorie art et technologie, arts numériques, recherche et conception multimédias, images et
espaces virtuels, processus interactifs de communication.
Consultant des nouvelles technologies de création et de communication multimédias dans les
secteurs culturels, artistiques, éducatifs, muséographiques, scénographiques et architecturaux,
institutionnels et privés, et auprès d'institutions stratèges des politiques culturelles et éducatives.
Opticien chercheur en procédés d'imagerie virtuelle, de projection tridimensionnelle et de simulation
visuelle dans l'espace réel ; conception partagée d'installations à vocation interactive,
muséographique, scénographique et de communication.
CORINA SUTEU - for On-The-Move
Consultant and researcher, President of EcumEst
CV présenté dans la session plénière
KATELIJN VERSTRAETE - for On-The-Move / IETM
IETM Communication, Information and Training Officer and Asia manager’s projects
Katelijn Verstraete is IETM's Communication, Information and Training Officer and also responsible
for Asia projects. She holds an MA in sinology and a postgraduate degree in marketing. Between
1996 and 2003 she worked in the commercial sector in China, while being active in the contemporary
art scene there. She co-founded, and co-managed from 1999 till 2003, an independent arts space in
Shanghai called BizArt. After her return to Europe, before joining IETM she worked with the
KunstenFestivalDesArts in Brussels as a press and public relations officer.
COMITÉ D’ORGANISATION
Content Coordination :
Georges-Albert Kisfaludi – on behalf of the City of Nantes
Corina Suteu – on behalf of on-the-move.org
Logistics Coordination:
Emmanuel Gaudin et Elise Famy (Ville de Nantes – DGC)
Katelijn Verstraete et Magali Siaudeau (IETM – On The Move)
COMITE SCIENTIFIQUE
STEERING COMMITTEE
- PASCAL BRUNET Directeur du Relais Culture Europe
Le Relais Culture Europe, point de contact pour
le programme Culture 2000 de l’Union
Européenne, tend à favoriser la coopération et
les échanges culturels en Europe par le soutien
d’information et d’orientation qu’il apporte à
l’ensemble des professionnels du champ culturel
français.
Il a occupé différents postes dans le domaine du
spectacle vivant contemporain : Directeur
administratif du Centre Chorégraphique National
de Rennes et de Bretagne, Co-Directeur
d’Isadora,
projet
de
développement
chorégraphique, Secrétaire général du Groupe
de Musique Expérimentale de Bourges, …
Impliqué depuis plusieurs années dans la
coopération
culturelle
européenne
et
internationale, il est membre fondateur du DBM,
réseau de coopération euro- méditerranéen, et
membre de plusieurs réseaux et forums
européens,
IETM,
FEMEC, ….
[email protected]
Relais Culture Europe is the cultural contact
point for the European community programme,
“Culture 2000”, supporting cultural cooperation
and exchanges by providing guidance,
information and orientation to professionals in
the cultural field.
He has held various posts in the field of
performing arts: executive director of the “Centre
Chorégraphique de Rennes et de Bretagne”,
Isadora’s co-director , project of choreographic
development, Secretary general of the “Groupe
de musique expérimentale de Bourges”...
Involved for several years in European and
international cultural cooperation, he is a founder
member of DBM, the euro-mediterranean
cooperation network, and also a member of
several networks and European forums as IETM,
FEMEC...
[email protected]
- MARY-ANN DE VLIEG Secretary General of IETM
CV présenté dans l’atelier 4
- DON FORESTA – Special Adviser
Researcher artist / Théoricien de l’art multimédia
CV présenté dans la session plénière
100
- GEORGES-ALBERT KISFALUDI Professeur à l’Erban, Consultant International Media Consultants, Chercheur (ATEA)
CV présenté dans « coordination générale »
- KIMMO LEHTONEN Web consultant developer
CV présenté dans l’atelier 1
- JUDITH STAINES General Editor of on-the-move.org
Judith Staines is an independent arts consultant with over 20 years experience in the cultural sector.
Currently based in England, she undertakes research, writing and project management for a variety
of organisations. She has worked with many European cultural networks including EFAH (European
Forum for Arts and Heritage), European Artists’ Pépinières, RESEO and ACCR (European Network
of Cultural Centres / Historic Monuments). In 2003 she worked for Visiting Arts as Editor for
Culturebase (www.culturebase.net), a Culture 2000 project promoting international artists. In 2002
she researched arts connections in India for the Arts Council of England’s International Fellowship
Programme. She is the author of ‘Working Groups’, an influential 1996 study by EFAH into the scope
and impact of European cultural networks, and has written several handbooks for visual artists. She
has a BA in French and Romanian from the University of London and a European Diploma in Cultural
Project Management from the Marcel Hicter Foundation.
- CORINA SUTEU Consultant and researcher
President of EcumEst
CV présenté dans la session plénière
- ALEXANDRA UZELAC Senior Research - Institute for International Relations
CV présenté dans l’Atelier 3
- KATELIJN VERSTRAETE IETM Communication, Information and Training Officer and Asia manager’s projects
CV présenté dans la coordination générale
- MICHEL G. WESSELING - Adviser
Head of Library and IT Services at the Institute of Social Studies Den Haag / Free lance consultant
and Technical Advisor to the LAB project.
CV présenté dans la session plénière
101
PARTENAIRES
PARTNERS
- VILLE DE NANTES Avec une école de beaux-arts centenaire formant ses étudiants aux nouvelles technologies en tant
qu’outil de création et de diffusion artistique, avec un système d’information numérique en ligne via
son mobilier urbain InfoNantes, avec le développement d’un projet multimédia innovant dans le cadre
de la mise en valeur du Château des ducs de Bretagne et de sa future muséographie, la Ville de
Nantes multiplie les expériences tant en matière d’information culturelle que de diffusion numérique
de la création artistique.
- L’ERBAN L’école régionale des beaux-arts de Nantes est un établissement culturel d'enseignement supérieur
et de recherche axé sur la création artistique et l'art contemporain. Ses 300 étudiants, dont certains
en échanges internationaux, sont incités à développer des projets personnels, notamment pour
expérimenter et mélanger pratiques traditionnelles et techniques innovantes de l'expression
multimédia. L'enseignement est mis en œuvre par des artistes et chercheurs de la France entière,
tous spécialistes de leur discipline(s) ; en particulier, la pédagogie de la création numérique et de ses
techniques se nourrit d'une réflexion permanente au sein d'un “collègue du numérique”. Dans ce
champ spécifique, l'ERBAN possède des compétences pointues et des laboratoires avec un haut
niveau d'équipement en NTIC et en technologies de l'expression. Les questions de culture
numérique, de création en ligne interactive et, plus couramment, de l'information et de la
dématérialisation, sont donc tout à fait d'actualité dans le cursus des étudiants de l'ERBAN.
C'est pourquoi la nouvelle direction de l'ERBAN a choisi de développer en ligne non seulement une
politique de communication et d'information sur Internet par le biais d’un site Web dynamique et
ouvert à l'expérimentation, mais aussi sa communication interne. Sur le plan du fonctionnement
pédagogique, cette stratégie centrée sur l'usage se traduit par la mise en place d’un “bureau
numérique mobile” pour chaque étudiant et intervenant de l'ERBAN : un espace virtuel de travail et
d'archivage en ligne pour chacun, accessible depuis tout ordinateur sur les divers sites de l’école,
avec ou sans fil (GigaBit Ethernet et WiFi), y compris depuis les ordinateurs personnels nomades.
L'ERBAN expérimente donc bien, au quotidien, le rapport entre art, culture et information en ligne,
avec la volonté de créer des communautés connectées desquelles émergent de nouvelles formes
artistiques.
InfoNantes : de l’information culturelle à la diffusion artistique…
Depuis novembre 2001, la Ville de Nantes développe, au travers de son mobilier urbain InfoNantes (7
grands écrans graphiques de 8m2 installés sur l’espace public, 10 écrans plasma situés dans des
établissements ouverts du public, 150 kiosques multimédias disséminés dans les abris voyageurs et
sur les places nantaises, 50 journaux électroniques, 7 totems d’entrée de ville, 30 bornes Internet en
accès libre) et de son site Internet www.nantes.fr, l’information culturelle en ligne.
Information en continu sur l’actualité de la vie culturelle de Nantes et de son agglomération, agenda
des sorties s’agissant des séances de cinéma, des concerts, des spectacles, des expositions…,
catalogue en ligne des bibliothèques municipales, consultation de trésors de manuscrits de la
bibliothèque municipale tels Saint-Augustin ou Jules Verne, mise à disposition des informations
pratiques et renseignements sur les établissements culturels nantais… la consultation du site officiel
de la Ville de Nantes est passée de 60 visiteurs par jour en octobre 2001 à 11 000 en juin 2005.
102
Du jeudi 19 mai au dimanche 22 mai, 1 029 028 pages ont été consultés à l’occasion de “la Visite du
sultan des Indes sur son éléphant à voyager dans le temps" de Royal de Luxe... soit 100 000
visiteurs uniques en quatre jours…
Même si l’accroissement du taux d’équipements informatiques des foyers français et la
démocratisation permanente des technologies de la communication explique en partie cette
évolution, on s’aperçoit que le grand public s’approprie peu à peu l’outil en tant que support
d’information et que les artistes, pour leur part, y trouvent autant un outil de création qu’un espace de
promotion et de diffusion de leur création.
Entre le souci d’information auprès du grand public et les potentialités créatives des médium en ligne,
la question se pose de la création de “passerelles”, de “réseaux” pour développer des outils
communautaires numériques. Par le médium en ligne, chaque usager devient un acteur potentiel.
Multipliant les expériences en terme de diffusion de l’information, la Ville de Nantes dans son souci
de développer les médias en ligne au service des usagers, propose aux artistes et vidéastes en
particulier des espaces de création numérique.
C’est ainsi que le mobilier urbain InfoNantes s’est ouvert depuis juin 2004 à l’art contemporain en
diffusant des créations vidéographiques (de petits films de 40 à 60 secondes) d’artistes nantais dans
le cadre de sa rubrique Nantes Création.
Et c’est ainsi que depuis 2004, la Ville de Nantes s’est associée avec sept autres villes de l’Arc
Atlantique avec pour objectif de créer un observatoire culturel à travers un site Internet
Cultur*At fédérant une base de données communes sur les artistes, créateurs, opérateurs culturels,
artistiques ou touristiques pour rendre compte de la richesse et de la diversité de la vie culturelle de
chaque ville auprès des professionnels de la culture et du grand public.
Château des ducs de Bretagne : des dispositifs multimédias et audiovisuels au cœur du
parcours muséographique
Depuis plusieurs années, la Ville de Nantes a entrepris un ambitieux programme de restauration et
e
d’aménagement du Château des ducs de Bretagne, édifice de la fin du XV siècle, classé monument
historique et abritant un musée municipal bénéficiant du statut de “Musée de France”. L’ouverture au
public du site réaménagé et du nouveau musée consacré à Nantes et son histoire est programmée
pour l’automne 2006.
Dans le cadre de l’aménagement muséographique, et afin de rendre à la fois didactique, vivante et
attractive, la présentation d’environ 800 pièces de collection (peintures, sculptures, documents, objets
ethnographiques et historiques), la Ville de Nantes a décidé de faire appel aux technologies
audiovisuelles et multimédias. Elles ont pour objectif de favoriser l’interactivité, le plaisir de la
découverte, l’immersion ou encore l’approfondissement de la visite.
Le parcours muséographique, chronologique et thématique, va se déployer dans 32 salles
jalonnées de 17 dispositifs multimédias différents, dont l’un se déclinera en 14 points multimédias
(bornes multilingues) qui traiteront de 14 thèmes différents relatifs à l’histoire de Nantes, depuis l’Edit
de Nantes jusqu’aux grands projets urbains d’aujourd’hui, avec une approche pédagogique.
Les 16 autres dispositifs, plus spectaculaires rythmeront le parcours par le biais de projections vidéo
sur grand écran, dont certaines seront interactives, et des simulations en 3D, avec une approche plus
immersive. Les contenus évoqueront l’histoire du château et de la Bretagne ducale, l’estuaire de la
Loire, le développement urbain, l’activité portuaire et industrielle, le patrimoine du terroir du pays
nantais, la seconde guerre mondiale et la reconstruction, les mouvements sociaux, la métropole
d’aujourd’hui.
Le parcours s’achèvera sur la création par un artiste d’un portrait de ville sur grand écran courbe,
interactifs, faisant la synthèse du parcours et occupant l’ensemble du volume de la dernière salle.
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- ON-THE-MOVE.ORG On-The–Move est un site web créé en 2001 et
officiellement lancé en 2003 par l'IETM, dont le
but était, au départ, de faciliter l'accès à
l'information sur la mobilité des artistes en
Europe et dans le monde (plus particulièrement
les artistes actifs dans le domaine des arts du
spectacle). En 2002, le site web a petit à petit
adopté le profil d'une base de données sur les
opportunités de financement, les instruments
institutionnels et les informations au service des
opérateurs culturels au sens large du terme,
avec pour objectif de renforcer la coopération
culturelle
transfrontalière.
Cependant,
la
question de la mobilité demeurait le moteur de
l'évolution pour le site web.
On-The–Move is a website created in 2001
and officially launched in 2003 by IETM,
which consisted at the beginning in
facilitating the access to information on the
mobility of artists in Europe and worldwide
(especially of those in the performing arts
field). In 2002, the website was gradually
directed towards the profile of database of
funding
opportunities,
of
institutional
instruments and of information in the service
of cultural operators in a wider sense, which
aimed at reinforcing transfrontalier cultural
cooperation. However, the issue of mobility
remained the engine of the evolution for the
website.
En 2003, le site web proposait des sessions de
formation pour les opérateurs culturels de divers
pays européens (France, Portugal, RoyaumeUni, Allemagne et Roumanie), les participants à
ces
sessions
étant
toutefois
plutôt
multinationaux (au Royaume-Uni, des membres
de l'IETM, et en Roumanie, des pays ESE).
In 2003, the website has set up sessions of
training for cultural operators from different
European countries (in France, Portugal,
Great Britain, Germany and Romania), the
audience of these sessions being however
multinational (in Great Britain, members of
IETM, and in Romania, SEE countries).
Plusieurs observations s'imposent sur la base
de ces sessions:
From these sessions, several observations
are imposed:
- La communauté des professionnels actifs
dans le domaine culturel utilise OTM de
diverses
façons.
Les
différences
sont
notamment importantes entre les pays de l'Est,
les pays méditerranéens, la France et les pays
anglo-saxons.
- The community of professionals working in
culture has different ways of using OTM.
Important differences are to be remarked
between
the
eastern
countries,
Mediterranean countries, France and the
Anglo-Saxon countries.
- Même si le site web est très interactif, les
utilisateurs ont tendance à se servir uniquement
du moteur de recherche ou de la base de
données, sans s'intéresser au potentiel ou au
contenu général du site et ce, même s'il
s'adresse à une catégorie professionnelle
spécifique.
- Even if the website intends to be very
interactive, there is a tendency to make use
only of the search engine or of the database,
without any curiosity for its potential or its
general content, and this, even if it is
addressed to a specific professional
category.
- En outre, le site web offre toutes sortes de
possibilités pour la mise en place d'une
coopération active sur la question de la mobilité
on-line par l'entremise de partenaires culturels
institutionnels européens. Néanmoins, une
médiation compétente entre les techniciens du
site web et les environnements culturels fait
défaut pour faciliter le développement et
l'utilisation de l'outil on-line, lequel est limité en
ce qui concerne les capacités et besoins du
secteur.
- On the other hand, the website represents
a good potential for the set up of an active
cooperation on the issue of the online
mobility by the means of European
institutional cultural partners. Nevertheless,
there is a lack of competent mediation
between the technicians of the websites and
the cultural environments in order to facilitate
the building and the utilization of the online
tool, restraint in what concerns the capacities
and the needs of the field.
104
Suite à ces observations et en raison d'un
intérêt croissant pour l'amélioration du site web
de la part des opérateurs, OTM a décidé de
mettre en place une structure juridique
autonome, offrant à la fois un savoir-faire
technologique et culturel et réunissant plusieurs
partenaires
européens
(davantage
d'informations dans l'annexe).
Following these observations, as well as a
growing interest in improving the website
coming from the operators, OTM directed
itself towards putting in place a autonomous
juridical structure, providing both the
technological and cultural know-how, and
which brings together several European
partners (more information in the annex).
La réunion de Nantes fait partie de cet effort
d'évolution d'OTM, la France étant l'un des
moteurs
essentiels
de
la
coopération
européenne sur la question de la mobilité des
artistes et des projets culturels.
The meeting of Nantes is part of this
endeavor of evolution of OTM, France being
one of the important engines of the
European cooperation on the issue of
mobility of artists and of cultural projects.
- IETM IETM (Informal European Theatre Meeting), le
Réseau International d'Art du Spectacle Vivant,
est une organisation qui réunit des membres
afin de stimuler la qualité, l'échange et le
développement
des
arts
du
spectacle
contemporains dans un environnement global
favorable. L'IETM concrétise cet objectif en
initiant et facilitant le travail en réseau
professionnel, ainsi que la communication,
l'échange
dynamique
d'information,
la
transmission de savoir-faire et la présentation
d’exemples pratiques.
IETM (Informal European Theatre Meeting),
the International Network for Contemporary
Performing
arts,
is
a
membership
organisation which exists to stimulate the
quality, development and contexts of
contemporary performing arts in a global
environment, by initiating and facilitating
professional networking and communication,
the dynamic exchange of information, knowhow transfer and presentations of examples of
good practice.
L'IETM compte aujourd'hui plus de 400
organisations
professionnelles
d'une
quarantaine de pays différents, actives dans le
secteur du théâtre et de la danse
contemporains et qui se consacrent à la
collaboration et aux échanges artistiques
transfrontaliers. Ces professionnels sont libres,
majoritairement à la tête d’organisations
novatrices et « indépendantes » d'esprit plutôt
que d’institutions officielles ou de théâtres
nationaux. Les directeurs de festivals, de
théâtres, de centres culturels ou artistiques, les
producteurs indépendants, les organisateurs de
manifestations culturelles, les responsables de
centres de documentation, les écrivains et les
intellectuels qui adhèrent au réseau sont tous
engagés
professionnellement
et
personnellement
dans
des
échanges
transfrontaliers artistiques et convaincus de la
validité du travail en réseau, générateur de
synergies.
IETM consists of over 400 subscribing
professional performing arts organisations
from more than 45 different countries. They
are engaged in innovative, contemporary
performance work and are committed to
cross-border
artistic
exchange
and
collaboration. They tend to be, as we say
“independent – in statute or in spirit”, rather
than being official institutions or national
theatres. Whether festival directors, theatre,
cultural or arts centre managers, independent
producers,
event
organisers,
cultural
documentation centres, writers or thinkers,
they are all committed to international
performance exchange and networking as a
means to generate synergies greater than
individual input.
105
Les membres de l'IETM partagent la conviction
de la nécessité de la diversité culturelle en
Europe, génératrice de multiples occasions de
coopération. Ils ont aussi pour ambition de
soutenir les artistes, acteurs essentiels de la
société en pleine évolution dans laquelle nous
vivons.
The spirit of IETM membership comes from a
belief in the cultural diversity of Europe, the
thousands of opportunities for co-operation
within it, and a desire to voice the needs and
importance of the artist in our changing
international societies.
A fin de répondre aux besoins du secteur, IETM
a créé et lancé le site www.on-the-move.org en
2003.
Pour plus amples informations sur IETM voir:
www.ietm.org
As a response to the need in the sector, IETM
created and launched www.on-the-move.org
in 2003
For more information on IETM please consult:
www.ietm.org
- RELAIS CULTURE EUROPE Le Relais Culture Europe a été crée en 1998
sur l’initiative de la Commission européenne
(DG Education et Culture) et du Ministère de la
Culture et de la Communication (Département
des Affaires européenne et internationale). Le
Relais Culture Europe est le point de contact
national pour le programme Culture 2000.
Son activité s’organise autour de trois grandes
activités :
Relais Culture Europe was created in 1998 on
the initiative of the European Commission
(DG Education and Culture) and of the
Ministry of Culture and Communication
(Department of European and international
affairs). Relais Culture Europe is the national
contact point for the programme Culture 2000.
Its activities are organised around three main
programmes:
- Coopération culturelle et point de contact
Culture 2000 : La coopération culturelle, le
développement des échanges et la promotion
de la diversité culturelle sont des enjeux
majeurs de la construction et de l’intégration
européenne. Elle concerne aussi bien la
coopération intra communautaire que celle
engagée avec les pays voisins. Cela ne peut se
faire sans la mise en réseau des professionnels
du secteur culturel français et européens, ni
sans une incitation au développement de
projets de coopération culturelle intra ou extra
communautaire.
En tant que point de contact Culture 2000, le
Relais accompagne les opérateurs dans leur
démarche de coopération et leur apporte une
assistance technique dans le montage de leurs
dossiers de demandes de subvention.
- Cultural cooperation and contact point
Culture 2000: Cultural cooperation, the
development of interchange and the
promotion of cultural diversity are the major
issues of the European construction and
integration.
It
also
concerns
the
intracommunitary
cooperation
and
cooperation with the neighbour countries. This
is not possible unless the professionals of the
French and European cultural sectors are
inserted into networks, and unless the
development of intra and extra-communitary
cultural cooperation projects is stimulated.
As contact point Culture 2000, the Relais
accompanies
the
operators
in
their
cooperation activities and offers them
technical assistance in the elaboration of their
subsidy application files.
- Politique régionale de l’Union européenne
et animateur du réseau des Pôles régionaux
Culture Europe : La politique régionale
européenne est une des principales politiques
de l’Union européenne. Il s’agit donc de
sensibiliser les opérateurs culturels régionaux
aux enjeux du développement des territoires et
- EU regional policy and animator of the
network of regional poles Europe Culture:
The European regional policy is one of the
major EU policies. It is necessary to heighten
the regional cultural operators’ awareness of
the stakes of the development of the
territories and European cultural cooperation,
106
de la coopération culturelle européenne et de
les accompagner dans leur démarche, mais
également de favoriser la capitalisation des
expériences culturelles et favoriser le transfert
de savoir-faire. Pour répondre aux attentes des
acteurs du champ culturel, le Relais Culture
Europe a initié la mise en place d’in réseau de
structures d’animation en région, visant à
optimiser la participation des acteurs culturels,
publics et privés, aux programmes de la
politique régionale européenne.
and to accompany them in their activities, but
also to benefit the capitalisation of the cultural
experiences and the transfer of know-how.
- Mobilité des professionnels en Europe et
partenaire
de l’IETM
sur
le projet
OnTheMove : La mobilité des professionnels
est à la fois un enjeu de la construction
européenne et un des objectifs majeurs des
dispositifs de soutien communautaire. Afin de
répondre à ce besoin, le Relais Culture Europe
développe des actions permettant de faciliter la
mobilité de ces professionnels de la culture en
Europe.
Mobility of the professionals in Europe and
IETM partner in the OnTheMove project:
the professionals’ mobility is at the same time
an issue of the European construction and
one of the major goals of the communitary
support mechanisms. To respond to this
need, Relais Culture Europe develops
activities allowing a greater mobility of these
professionals of culture in Europe.
Et autour de trois pôles de service :
- Formation : le Relais Culture Europe apporte
son expertise et son savoir-faire sur différents
thèmes de formation
- Rencontres / Partenariats : le Relais Culture
Europe organise et participe à des rencontres
professionnelles, colloques afin de sensibiliser
les professionnels du secteur culturel aux
grands enjeux européens
- Information / Communication : le Relais
Culture Europe en tant que structure ressource
sur la coopération culturelle en Europe, accorde
une large place à la diffusion d’information et à
la
sensibilisation
des
professionnels
(publications, site ressources, édition de guides
et plaquettes…)
And three service poles:
- Training: Relais Culture Europe offers its
expertise and know-how in different training
areas
- Meetings/Partnerships: Relais Culture
Europe organises and participates in
professional meetings and colloquia to
heighten the awareness of the professionals
of the cultural sector with regard to the big
European issues.
- Information/Communication: Relais Culture
Europe, as a resource structure for cultural
cooperation in Europe, attaches a lot of
importance to the spreading of information
and the raising of the professionals’
awareness (publications, resource sites,
publication of guides and brochures…)
In response to the expectations of the actors
from the cultural sector, Relais Culture Europe
has initiated the implementation of an
animation structure network in the region,
aimed at optimising the participation of the
cultural, public and private actors in the
programmes of the European regional policy.
107
ORGANIZED WITH THE SUPPORT OF
SOUTENU PAR
Ecole Rég iona le des Beaux Arts de Nan tes
“With support of the Ministry of Culture, Higher Education
and research of Luxembourg”
Commission Européenne
“This initiative forms part of the G2CC project, supported by the European Union - Directorate
General for Education and Culture (Dec2004-Dec2006) and is run in an active partnership with the
four
G2CC
co-organizers :
ERICarts
Institute
www.ericarts.org,
European
Cultural
Foundation/Laboratory of European Cultural Cooperation www.eurocult.org, Fitzcaraldo Foundation
www.fitzcarraldo.it/en/, and On-the-Move Association www.on-the-move.org.”
108